The Canadian Open brought the feud between Stefanos Tsitsipas and his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas, to light. The Greek star lost to the Japanese veteran Kei Nishikori in R2. Midway through the match, Tsitsipas shouted at his father asking him to “immediately leave.” What followed Stefanos’ devastating defeat was a big change in his team. Tsitsipas fired his father as coach. After over a month, Apostolos has finally opened up about the emotional aftermath of the dreaded day!

Although things quietened down with time, everyone was left wondering about the aftermath of the confrontation between father and son during the match. Finally, Apostolos shared his thoughts on the incident with the Newsit on September 28th and revealed that Stefanos did apologize to him, not once but many times. While narrating the reason for Tsitsipas’ emotional outburst, he said, “Athletes are under a lot of pressure. Many times they will go out of their way.”

Rightly so. It’s difficult for the spectators at times to understand the emotions of the players. And it certainly takes a good amount of time for the players as well to channel their emotions the right way. Apostolos praised his son, and further added, “At some point, someone will mature and understand that they have to manage it. Stefanos Tsitsipas is a very good boy and has a good soul.” The 25-year-old won 11 tour-level titles under his father’s guidance, including the Nitto ATP Finals in 2019.

Apostolos further differentiated between judging the behavior of an athlete and the athlete in general. He said, “We do not judge the athlete, we judge his behavior in the stadium.” But in Tsitsipas’ case, it was not just his behavior that was criticized that day, the Greek’s stature as an athlete also took a hit. However, Apostolos revealed, “I received many apologies, not one. The problem is not the apology, the problem is for him to understand why this is the reason,” Apostolos further remarked. So where has Tsisipas stood since the split?

The world No 11 has been working with Greece’s Davis Cup captain, Dimitris Hadjinikolaou, while he searches for a new full-time coach. In his two tournaments after the split, Tsitsipas lost in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters to Jack Draper and the first round of the US Open to Thanasi Kokkinakis. Interestingly, his efforts to rope in a coach just faced a setback!

While enjoying a weekend competing at the Laver Cup, Tsisipas tried to recruit his Team Europe captain. Yes, Bjorn Borg, we are talking of! Borg is set to step down from his captaincy after this year’s Laver Cup. The Swedish legend has led the Europe squad since the tournament’s inception seven years ago.

Tsisipas was asked if he could take anyone in the world as his new coach. He jokingly said, “Right now? Bjorn.” But the 68-year-old did not seem to be much interested. “No, but I think we have a good team spirit,” the 11-time Grand Slam champion said! Jokes apart, a suitable coach indeed looks to be a necessity for Tsisipas, who, many believe, is not the same player as he was.

Most of them pointed out issues on his backhand side, but the Greek himself singled out his struggles with his forehand after the Canadian Open loss and Scathingly called out the deficiencies he felt Apostolos has as a coach.

“For me, an ATP Masters 1000 match is an important match. I need and I deserve a coach that listens to me and hears my feedback as a player. My father hasn’t been very smart or very good at handling those situations, it’s not the first time he has done that. The most important thing for a player is to have direct and good feedback from a coach. The coach is not the one holding a racket. The player is the one trying to execute a game plan,” he had said on that occasion.

This year Tsisipas has a healthy 35-15 record, won the Monte Carlo Masters, and was a finalist at the Barcelona Open. He had a mostly strong clay-court season and is just outside the top 10 in the ATP Rankings. However, he indeed is far from the player who made two Grand Slam finals, won the ATP Finals, and also reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in 2021. To make matters worse, there were questions about his work ethic, and that too, from his own team.

Christos Fiotakis is a fitness coach who worked with Tsitsipas for several years before joining in a full-time capacity for the 2024 season. But he left the team in June and was brutal in his criticism of Tsisipas and apparently the rest of his team. “The results and goals I had set as a coach did not come. The team atmosphere doesn’t match my energy and, unfortunately, we have other priorities,” he had said. But how much does his father have to do with the so-called atmosphere? A lot, it seems.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ public outburst has deep roots

Tsisipas’ former physiotherapist Jerome Bianchi had revealed earlier this month that the Greek’s relationship with Apostolos had “not been sustainable for years” before their coaching split. Notably, Tsitsipas had parted ways with his father in 2023 after he hired former World No. 8 Mark Philippoussis. But two months later, he split with the Australian and resumed his partnership with his dad. According to Bianchi, Tsisipas’ mother had a distinct role in retaining his father as a coach.

“Their way of operating is harmful. Every time Stefanos wanted to break up with his father, his mother ran and said, ‘You can’t do this to him, he dedicated his life to you’. And he found himself feeling guilty. He realizes that he is getting on in age and that his career has not been what it should have been,” Bianchi had said in an interview with L’Equipe.

Bianchi also revealed that some players stopped training with Tsitsipas because his father was a “chatterbox” who “wants to take up all the space and leaves him zero oxygen.” Meanwhile, a former world No 4 and US Open finalist, Greg Rusedski has something to say about the situation.

“I think the first six months of the year (2023), he (Tsitsipas) was brilliant, down under in Australia he played some of the best tennis he’s played in his life. Mark Philippoussis comes back to the team, he wins in [Los] Cabos. And then all of a sudden, that relationship broke down, there wasn’t the communication that needed to be there and he isn’t the player he once was. The backhand slice has gotten worse, the block [return] has gotten worse, the second serve — he doesn’t have the placement,” Greg had noted. Not only that, Greg also had a prediction that startlingly came out to be true.

Ahead of the Australian Open 2024, Greg had said that if Tsisipas could not solve the issues he had pointed out early in 2024, he was going to say goodbye to the tournament early. Tsitsipas did lose in the fourth round of the 2024 Australian Open, where he had reached the semi-finals or better in four of the previous five years. He also exited the top 10 for the first time since April 2019 in February. So does Mark Philippoussis hold the key for Tsisipas?

The wait for the answer continues. Amid that, Tsisipas’ mother, Julia Apostoli stated, “Of course, I think that Apostolos and Stefanos did not have such a good relationship since then. They had conflicts. And that’s why Stefanos made the decision to change coaches. We don’t see it as a tragedy. We are all together and we are a close family.” We can not comment on the family dynamics. But coming out from that familial coaching umbrella, Tsisipas is surely in uncharted territories. The course of his career depends a lot on how he navigates this phase.