Coming from Greece, it seemed that Stefanos Tsitsipas had almost no way to end up as a professional tennis player, as tennis is nowhere near the most popular sport played in the country.
However, as a son of Apostolos Tsitsipas, who worked as a tennis line judge but also a tennis coach, and mother of Julia Apostoli, a former Russian-born tennis player, his path seemed much clearer, and tennis inevitably became part of his everyday life as early as at the age of three.
Like many successful tennis players, Tsitsipas reached the world no. 1 ranking in the junior category and in 2017, he made his debut on the ATP Tour, competing at the Rotterdam Open, where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
In 2019, Tsitsipas reached his maiden Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, and the year after that, he followed up on the success with a semifinal run at the Roland Garros.
The Greek's progression didn't stop there, as he reached yet another Australian Open semifinal in 2021, which he followed up on with his maiden Grand Slam final at the 2021 Roland Garros, in what was a losing effort to Novak Djokovic despite leading by two sets.
Despite a disappointing end to his first major final, Tsitsipas rose to his career-high third place in the ATP Rankings in 2021, and he would get a chance for revenge only two years later at the Australian Open, where he played his second major final, but once again, he lost to Novak Djokovic.
In these years of his career, Tsitsipas' performance has been significantly better at the first two Grand Slams, as he never made it past the fourth round at the Wimbledon and the US Open.
Besides his career-high third place, some of the most significant achievements in Tsitsipas' career certainly include winning back-to-back Monte-Carlo Masters titles in 2021 and 2022, and also his 2019 ATP Finals triumph.
