Stefanos Tsitsipas is under fire from his former fitness coach, Christos Fiotakis, who left his team this year and is now claiming that the Greek player doesn't have the best work ethic.
Tsitsipas prides himself on the amount of work he puts into the sport. A few years ago, the Greek was widely considered obsessed with tennis, so the mere claim that his work ethic is questionable seems crazy.
Yet, his former fitness coach, Fiotakis, who left his team earlier this week, has made the claim. It's a fascinating claim because it might have merit, as Tsitsipas' tennis hasn't looked particularly inspired recently.
Multiple players have overtaken him on the ATP Tour, and even compared to his own standard, he's not playing on the same level anymore, despite recently winning the Monte-Carlo Masters again.
Is a fading work ethic the reason for it? It's tough to say, but Fiotakis seems to think so. Speaking with SDNA, his former fitness coach said that he was disappointed to see Tsitsipas slacking off on his goals.
"I was really looking forward to the Olympics in Paris because I thought that would be the moment when we could bring the gold, which we didn't do in Tokyo, due to bad luck and some strange circumstances."
"As I said, however, we have other priorities and I am not satisfied with Stefanos' work ethics. Right now I don't think his ultimate focus is on playing tennis and getting to the top of the rankings or winning Grand Slams."
Fiotakis shocked with his claims, but some observable facts could back it. He may not seem too interested in tennis compared to before, and part of that might just be him growing up and realizing there are other things outside of tennis, too.
He's still by far the best tennis player Greece has ever had. His major career goal is to develop sports in his country. He's certainly done that so far and will continue to do that.