Stefanos Tsitsipas: 'My father speaks of tennis almost all the time'
Yulia Tsitsipas was the world No. 1 junior player but she never went beyond the 194th WTA ranking position. She interrupted her journalism studies career at the Moscow State University "He was a smart man. Besides being a footballer, he was also a journalist, educated, was speaking foreign languages. He does not like just the sports but culture too", said Yulia, Apostolos's mother. "He saw the potential, the fire in his son's eyes, he saw a big dream. He saw that he was different than the rest of the players. That's why he left his job. That was a big risk for him."
"Stefanos grew up with Soviet values: hard work and discipline for your sports life. "The system made you very strong mentally. Coaches were not nice with kids and kids were not nice each other."
After winning the Orange Bowl at 16 years of age, Tsitsipas signed a deal with Adidas which helped the family overall a lot. In 2016 he became the world No. 1 junior player. And just after that, he started training at the Mouratoglou Academy. "My father speaks about tennis for most of the time, I often told him that he should do it less because it's not the only thing in the world. But we can get along well each other", said Stefanos.
Tsitsipas nearly died in the sea when he was playing a Futures tournament. "The only time in my life that I felt that I was a few seconds away from the death. Because of this experience, I am not afraid of the work."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2TUHNb7
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