Stefanos Tsitsipas Bio
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greek: Στέφανος Τσιτσιπάς; born 12 August 1998) is a Greek professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 on 9 August 2021, the highest ever for a Greek man. Tsitsipas has won twelve ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2019 ATP Finals and three Masters 1000 crowns at Monte-Carlo (2021, 2022, 2024). He has contested two Grand Slam finals, finishing as runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the 2021 French Open and the 2023 Australian Open, making him the first Greek player to reach a major singles final in the Open Era.
Standing 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) tall and playing right-handed with a one-handed backhand, Tsitsipas is recognised for an aggressive baseline game combined with all-court instincts. He resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and continues to represent Greece in Davis Cup and United Cup competition.
Early Life and Background
Stefanos Tsitsipas was born on 12 August 1998 in Athens, Greece, to Apostolos Tsitsipas and Julia Apostoli (née Salnikova). His father is Greek, born in Proastio, Karditsa, and his mother is Russian with partial Greek heritage. His maternal grandfather, Sergei Salnikov, was a Soviet footballer who played for Zenit Leningrad, Spartak Moscow, and Dynamo Moscow and was part of the Soviet national team. Both parents are experienced tennis players; Julia reached the top 200 in professional rankings and represented the Soviet Union in Federation Cup, while Apostolos trained as a tennis coach.
The couple met at a WTA event in Athens, where Julia was competing and Apostolos was working as a line judge. At the time of Stefanos’s birth they were tennis instructors at the Astir Palace resort hotel in Vouliagmeni. He has three younger siblings, brothers Petros and Pavlos and sister Elisavet, all of whom also play tennis. Stefanos first picked up a racket at age three, hitting balls with his father between lessons, and began formal training at Tennis Club Glyfada near Athens at age six, a venue he continues to use.
From 2015, Tsitsipas split his training between Greece and the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France. He attended an English-language school in his youth and is fluent in English, Greek, and Russian.
Path to Tennis
Tsitsipas began playing ITF Futures events in Greece in 2013 at the age of 15 and quickly moved up the junior ladder. He became a fixture in the ITF Junior Circuit and reached the final of the Grade A Orange Bowl in late 2014. In 2015, he played all four junior Grand Slams, reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals. The following year, 2016, marked his breakout: he won his first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio, captured the European Junior Championships, and partnered with Estonian Kenneth Raisma to win the boys’ doubles at Wimbledon, becoming the first Greek male to win a junior Grand Slam in the Open Era. He finished that season as the world No. 2 junior.
By the end of 2016, Tsitsipas had already begun transitioning to the professional ranks, winning eleven ITF Futures titles (five singles, six doubles) and reaching two Challenger finals in Morocco that helped him crack the top 200. His first ATP Tour appearance came at the 2016 Swiss Indoors in Basel, and his main-draw debut followed at the 2017 Rotterdam Open.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Career
Early Career (2017–2018)
Tsitsipas qualified for eight ATP events in 2017, including Wimbledon and the Shanghai Masters, but did not record a tour-level match win until late in the season, when he defeated Karen Khachanov in Shanghai. At the European Open in Belgium the following week he reached his first ATP semifinal as a qualifier, upsetting world No. 10 David Goffin for his first career top-10 victory. That run made him the first Greek player ranked inside the top 100 of the ATP.
In 2018 Tsitsipas reached his first ATP final at the Barcelona Open, where he defeated three top-20 opponents before losing to Rafael Nadal. He then advanced to his first Masters 1000 final at the Canadian Open in Toronto, becoming the youngest player to defeat four top-10 opponents in a single tournament. He won his maiden ATP title at the Stockholm Open, defeating Ernests Gulbis in the final, and closed the year by winning the Next Gen ATP Finals. He was named ATP Most Improved Player of the Year.
Breakthrough Years (2019–2020)
Tsitsipas opened 2019 by reaching the Australian Open semifinals, upsetting defending champion Roger Federer in the fourth round. He broke into the top 10 for the first time after the Dubai Tennis Championships and won the Estoril Open on clay for his first title on the surface. At the ATP Finals in November he defeated Roger Federer in the semifinals and Dominic Thiem in a third-set tiebreak to claim the year-end championship, becoming the youngest winner of the event since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001. He was also named Greek Male Athlete of the Year for 2019.
In 2020 he reached the French Open semifinal and defended his Open 13 title in Marseille. He was eliminated in the round-robin stage of the ATP Finals after going 1–2 in his group.
First Masters Title and Grand Slam Final (2021)
Tsitsipas won his first Masters 1000 title at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters, becoming the first Greek player in history to win a Masters crown. He followed with the Lyon Open and then produced his best Grand Slam result at the French Open, where he defeated Alexander Zverev in five sets to become the first Greek man to reach a major singles final. He took a two-set lead over Novak Djokovic in the championship match before falling in five sets. He climbed to a career-high world No. 4 that day and, shortly after, achieved his all-time best ranking of No. 3.
Defending Monte-Carlo and Reaching the Australian Open Final (2022–2023)
In 2022 Tsitsipas successfully defended his Monte-Carlo title against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He also won his first grass-court title at the Mallorca Open. On the doubles side he captured his second ATP doubles title and reached a career-high doubles ranking of No. 64 on 29 August 2022.
At the 2023 Australian Open he advanced past Jannik Sinner, Karen Khachanov, others to reach his second major final, where he again lost to Djokovic. In Paris-Bercy he defeated Karen Khachanov to record the 300th win of his career, becoming the first player born in 1998 and the seventh born in the 1990s or later to reach that milestone. He finished the season at world No. 6.
Third Monte-Carlo Crown and Coaching Change (2024)
Tsitsipas captured his third Monte-Carlo Masters title in 2024, defeating Casper Ruud in the final without dropping a set. He reached the French Open quarterfinals, where he lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, and advanced to the Olympic quarterfinals in Paris. In August 2024 he ended his long-running coaching partnership with his father, Apostolos, citing a desire for healthier boundaries.
First ATP 500 Title and Slump (2025)
Tsitsipas won his first ATP 500 title at the 2025 Dubai Tennis Championships, ending an eleven-match losing streak in ATP 500 finals with a straight-sets victory over Félix Auger-Aliassime. The result returned him to the top 10 at world No. 9. The rest of 2025 was marked by injuries, coaching trials with Goran Ivanišević, and a slide down the rankings that saw him exit the top 20 after a second-round loss at the French Open. He ended the year ranked world No. 34, his lowest year-end position since 2017.
Driving Style and Strengths
Although Tsitsipas is best known as an aggressive baseliner, he is widely described as an all-court player. His one-handed backhand, an increasingly rare weapon in modern tennis, is his favourite shot, and he pairs it with a powerful Eastern-grip forehand and a high topspin rate to push opponents behind the baseline. His biggest results have come on clay, where he won all three of his Masters titles at Monte-Carlo, and he has also reached two hard-court Masters finals and four Australian Open semifinals (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) before his 2023 run to the final.
Notable Events and Milestones
Tsitsipas became the first Greek man to win an ATP title at the 2018 Stockholm Open, the first to reach a Grand Slam final at the 2021 French Open, and the youngest ATP Finals champion since Lleyton Hewitt when he won the 2019 year-end championship. He recorded his 200th, 300th, and 350th career wins in 2022, 2023, and 2025 respectively, and reached his 12th ATP 500 final at the 2025 Dubai Tennis Championships before winning the title.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Career Wins
Across all levels, Stefanos Tsitsipas has accumulated twelve ATP Tour singles titles, two ATP doubles titles, and three Masters 1000 crowns, all at the Monte-Carlo Masters. He has also won eleven ITF Futures titles, one ATP Challenger title (2017 Genova), and exhibition titles at the Next Gen ATP Finals (2018) and the Mubadala World Tennis Championship (2022).
Monte-Carlo Masters Highlights
Tsitsipas’s signature Masters run came at the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he won three titles in four years (2021, 2022, 2024), establishing himself as the dominant player of his generation at the event. His 2021 victory made him the first Greek Masters 1000 champion, and his 2024 title run included straight-sets wins over Alexander Zverev, Karen Khachanov, and Jannik Sinner before a straight-sets final over Casper Ruud.
Other Wins and Performances
Beyond Monte-Carlo, Tsitsipas won the 2018 Stockholm Open, the 2019 ATP Finals, the 2019 and 2020 Open 13 in Marseille, the 2019 Estoril Open, the 2021 Lyon Open, the 2022 Mallorca Open, the 2023 Los Cabos Open, and the 2025 Dubai Tennis Championships. As a junior he won the 2016 Wimbledon boys’ doubles and the 2016 European Junior Championships.
Stefanos Tsitsipas Family
Family Background and Racing Lineage
Although tennis is not a major sport in Greece, Stefanos Tsitsipas was born into a tennis family. His mother Julia Apostoli was a former Soviet Federation Cup player and world top-200 professional, and his father Apostolos studied tennis coaching at the University of Athens to help train his children. His maternal grandfather Sergei Salnikov was a Soviet football international. All three of Tsitsipas’s younger siblings, Petros, Pavlos, and Elisavet, also play tennis.
Personal Life
Tsitsipas is in a relationship with Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa. The couple began dating in May 2023, briefly split in May 2024, and reconciled three weeks later. He supports Greek football club AEK Athens, runs his own YouTube travel vlog, and identifies as Greek Orthodox. He has said he hopes his success helps grow the popularity of tennis in Greece, where the sport has historically drawn limited attention.
2025 Season Performance
Tsitsipas opened 2025 at the United Cup, where he won one singles rubber before Greece was eliminated. He exited the Australian Open in the first round against Alex Michelsen, his earliest Melbourne defeat since 2018, and reached the quarterfinals in Rotterdam. The high point came in Dubai, where he captured his first ATP 500 title by defeating Félix Auger-Aliassime in the final to climb back to world No. 9 and snap an eleven-match losing streak in ATP 500 finals.
The clay and grass seasons brought injuries and form struggles. He failed to defend his Monte-Carlo crown, falling to Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals, retired during his quarterfinal in Barcelona, lost early at both the Madrid and Rome Masters, and dropped out of the top 20 after a second-round loss at the French Open. On grass he retired with a back injury at Wimbledon and parted ways with Goran Ivanišević shortly thereafter. His father Apostolos returned as coach in time for the North American swing.
Tsitsipas continued to struggle physically through the autumn, withdrawing from the Shanghai Masters and Paris Masters due to leg and back injuries. He ended the season ranked world No. 34, his lowest year-end ranking since 2017.
