Walk Right In, Tsitsipas Right Down, Stefanos Let Your Game Roll On!

stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Second consecutive Challenger final in Morocco for the Greek world #1 junior ranking and ready to crack the top 200 with a win in the Casablanca final tomorrow vs fellow teen Maxime Janvier.

Here's some interesting facts to know about the rising teen star:

He shares a birthday (August 12) with a tennis great of Greek heritage and deadly ohbh, one Petros Sampras. He also has a younger (16) brother named Petros.

His coaches growing up have been his father Apostolos and his Russian-born mother Julija Salnikova, who reached WTA #194 in 1980 and played Fed Cup for Russia. His maternal grandfather was Russian soccer great Sergei Salnikov (Olympic gold medal winner in 1956).

He has won 5 Futures titles on clay and HC in the last 12 months, with his biggest win coming earlier this week vs Umag finalist Andrej Martin.

His biggest nemesis in juniors competition this year has been Denis Shapovalov, also the son of a Russian pro mother. Shapo beat him at RG (QF) and Wimby (SF). Between the two of them, the future of the ohbh may continue.

Stay tuned for updates...his stated goal is to crack the top 200 (almost done) and reach qualifying level for AO'17 (a work in progress).
 
stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Should have given the correct phonetics of the name for those who have not heard his name pronounced (I hope I am correct?):

Silent initial "T", followed by "sit", then "see" and ending with a "pas" that rhymes with the German article "das".
 
S'in-net

S'in-net

Semi-Pro
Well two weeks ago he was pretty much a futures player, and a good one
What is fascinating is the almost seamless transition from juniors to futures to challengers
Two weeks age he was winning a futures
Then he goes right out and plays NINE good matches in a row at the challengers

Impressed with his travelling as well
Goes from Canada futures straight to Portugal futures then straight to Morocco challengers

He can hit thru the ball even on the clay and looks comfortable on it
Maybe he came in a bit too much in the first set today, but his matchplay is good
That's three matches in a row he won that were tight and could have gone either way
 
gogo

gogo

Legend
stringertom said:
His biggest nemesis in juniors competition this year has been Denis Shapovalov, also the son of a Russian pro mother. Shapo beat him at RG (QF) and Wimby (SF). Between the two of them, the future of the ohbh may continue.
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I think that Stefanos should have won that Wimbledon match. Somehow Shapovalov managed to win it (to his credit). If I had to bet right now I would give the nod to Tsitsipas as to who will make it the furthest. Of course Tsitispas has an age advantage, but in any case it will be fun to watch these two OHBH players move the ball around the court for many years to come.
 
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Fedole

Fedole

Semi-Pro
Yeah nice thread, I've been following him the last two weeks and he's just kept on winning. Definitely on the bandwagon!
 
gogo

gogo

Legend
I might have to take my earlier comments back. Stefanos looking pretty shaky in the Casablanca final today. Not moving his feet. Ineffectual returns. Loss of confidence.

He has plenty of time to gain consistency, but he's going to have to work on his mental side and gain strength and stamina.
 
stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
gogo said:
I might have to take my earlier comments back. Stefanos looking pretty shaky in the Casablanca final today. Not moving his feet. Ineffectual returns. Loss of confidence.

He has plenty of time to gain consistency, but he's going to have to work on his mental side and gain strength and stamina.
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Please tell me there have been no racquet smashes or shirt rips!:eek:
 
O

Overhead.

New User
stringertom said:
OK, better...the initial and second "Ts" combo sounds more like an English "Z" as pronounced by the chair umpire. The parallel would be "tsar" which is Anglicized to "czar", where the "c" is totally silent.

Sadly, I watched the highlights to the ending bagel baking by De Minaur.:(
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Well the chair umpire is not greek, so it's normal he can't spell his name like a greek would ;)

Too bad he couldn't make it today, but as some tennis news sites of my country pointed out, he has played a lot of matches recently. Qualifying for the Australian Open seems very plausible.

edit: he himself has admitted he has to improve his stamina and agility, I believe there's room for improvement
 
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S'in-net

S'in-net

Semi-Pro
Well Stefanos has travelled a lot recently and also still been playing junior tournaments back to back with futures/challengers

He is a very positive guy and a good advert for the game. His social media sites inform you where he's going next
His home village looks like going back home to holiday :D
 
every7

every7

Hall of Fame
Just watched some footage and this guy looks incredible.

Adidas has found another one........
 
Rosstour

Rosstour

G.O.A.T.
I saw this guy play at one of the junior slams last year and fell in love with his game right away. If you like Fed's game you will like Tsitsipas as well.
 
stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Tsitsipas is on the brink of qualifying for his second consecutive slam, advancing to 3R and a match win vs Joris De Loore away from Wimby grass. He had a tough draw, overcoming #2 seed Giraldo in three sets before winning 2R vs Yannick Hanfmann in two TBs.
 
ByakuFubuki

ByakuFubuki

Semi-Pro
What happened to Stefanos' Backhand? Today it looked so untidy in both swing and footwork. I actually noticed the same thing at Roland Garros, but the opponent being Karlovic I thought the cause might have been him basically hitting only Returns and Passing Shots from that side. And with all due respect to Lajovic who's in my opinion one of the most underrated Players on tour, I don't think it has to do with level of play or ball heaviness, because against freaking Tsonga in Rotterdam it just looked great. Or so I remember.
 
Joseph_K

Joseph_K

Hall of Fame
It was third time lucky earlier today for Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Genoa Challenger in Italy. The 19-year-old Greek number 1 had lost his previous two singles finals at Challenger level, but today emerged the winner in Genoa against 34-year-old Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez.

Tsitsipas won a close first set, 7-5, and, despite being behind 5 games to 6 in the second, impressively held to love in the next game. In the ensuing tiebreak Tsitsipas was 0-2 down, but then won seven points in a row to complete a 7-5, 7-6(2) victory.
 
Tshooter

Tshooter

G.O.A.T.
I like his game. It's very stylish. Not the typical extreme grip forehand/2HB ball bashing you often find in the juniors.

It's good to see him bounce back from his loss to Mahut at 2017 USO, which was a bad loss showing zero fight.
 
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Joseph_K

Joseph_K

Hall of Fame
On Tuesday of this week Stefanos Tsitsipas is set to face the Belarussian player Uladzimir Ignatik in the first round at the American Express Challenger in Istanbul, Turkey. Tsitsipas is the no. 8 seed in the singles event and should be full of confidence following his victory at the Genoa Challenger yesterday, his first singles title at that level. The Greek player is in the top half of the draw, but cannot meet any seeds before the semi-final as the number 3 seed, Romanian Marius Copil, lost his first-round match earlier today, while Italy's Luca Vanni, the number 7 seed, has withdrawn from the tournament.

A link to the updated singles draw: http://www.protennislive.com/posting/2017/7083/mds.pdf
 
Joseph_K

Joseph_K

Hall of Fame
Earlier today in Istanbul Stefanos Tsitsipas couldn't quite maintain the momentum he created last week in Genoa and was beaten in three sets in his first-round match by Uladzimir Ignatik, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
 
L

Latetothegame

Semi-Pro
Interesting decussion re his name, the TS combination is commen in Greek, think tzatziki, (a traditional Greek yogurt diph which is the interpretation of the TS sound how there is no Z, Tsipras the current Greek PM, who most people in the news pronounce sip-pras
He name will never be pronounced correctly, but I was just laughing at the last video, where the the interviewer, repeated his name as ****-se-pras :eek:
 
L

Latetothegame

Semi-Pro
Latetothegame said:
Interesting decussion re his name, the TS combination is commen in Greek, think tzatziki, (a traditional Greek yogurt diph which is the interpretation of the TS sound how there is no Z, Tsipras the current Greek PM, who most people in the news pronounce sip-pras
He name will never be pronounced correctly, but I was just laughing at the last video, where the the interviewer, repeated his name as ****-se-pras :eek:
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t**its
 
Joseph_K

Joseph_K

Hall of Fame
A comfortable win earlier today for Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of qualifying for the Metz tournament. The young Greek player defeated Spain's Roberto Ortega Olmedo, 6-2, 7-5. Tsitsipas is seeded no. 3 in the qualifying draw and must beat the no. 5 seed, Germany's Yannick Maden, tomorrow to reach the main draw.
 
Joseph_K

Joseph_K

Hall of Fame
A workmanlike victory earlier today for S.T. in the second and final round of qualifying for the Metz tournament. The young Greek player defeated Germany's Yannick Maden in three sets, 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3, and will face an unseeded player in the first round of the main draw.
 
stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
Joseph_K said:
A workmanlike victory earlier today for S.T. in the second and final round of qualifying for the Metz tournament. The young Greek player defeated Germany's Yannick Maden in three sets, 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3, and will face an unseeded player in the first round of the main draw.
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He has drawn #7 seed Benoit Paire in a late afternoon match on Tuesday. The winner plays the Bolelli/Granollers survivor.
 
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