Sports parents have to often fill several roles from tennis-playing to emotional support to coaching. So it isn’t such a huge surprise that Apostolos Tsitsipas, who is Stefanos Tsitsipas’ father, is also his coach. With every new milestone that the world’s number 6 achieves, Apostolos also cements his legacy as a tennis coach.

Stefanos put up an ode to his dad on Instagram. He wrote the following, written from the point of view of his dad:

I started from far away, a little tiny village located in the northern district of Karditsa called Proastio. I came from a lower-class family working in the agriculture business. A family that was trying to raise and feed four children, including me. I wasn’t given much as a child. Playing tennis in the garden of our home with my brother was a daily habit. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were our idols growing up.

READ MORE: Who is Stefanos Tsitsipas? And why are Greeks making so much noise about him?

My dream always was to study, back then it was the best way to approach knowledge and get deep into it. Education was going to determine my future, I was always aware of it. I found myself in the sports science university few years later. One of my dreams was fulfilled. It was there that I was first introduced to real tennis. I loved it from the very first moment. During my studies I decided to specialize in tennis, looking forward and seeking for a chance to become better day by day. Eventually, I started competing in local tournaments and competitive matches. It was not long after that when I met my wife Julia in a professional WTA tournament held in Athens, Greece. And that’s how my involvement and evolvement with the sport literally “took-off”.

My dream was to find perfection. Tennis gives you unlimited feedback to achieve the best qualities of yourself, it sort of acts as psychotherapy. I am living and fulfilling a dream, a dream of every tennis coach. I am at the highest level of professional tennis, coaching my kids, and that makes it the most special journey of them all. I don’t know of what the future beholds and, I don’t want to know. Because living in the present is all that matters. I am so grateful to where my life has brought me. Everyday I wake up I am on a mission to provide for society, my beloved ones and the sport of tennis. #AGreekAbroad #TheVoyageExplained

 

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I started from far away, a little tiny village located in the northern district of Karditsa called Proastio. I came from a lower-class family working in the agriculture business. A family that was trying to raise and feed four children, including me. I wasn’t given much as a child. Playing tennis in the garden of our home with my brother was a daily habit. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe were our idols growing up. My dream always was to study, back then it was the best way to approach knowledge and get deep into it. Education was going to determine my future, I was always aware of it. I found myself in the sports science university few years later. One of my dreams was fulfilled. It was there that I was first introduced to real tennis. I loved it from the very first moment. During my studies I decided to specialize in tennis, looking forward and seeking for a chance to become better day by day. Eventually, I started competing in local tournaments and competitive matches. It was not long after that when I met my wife Julia in a professional WTA tournament held in Athens, Greece. And that’s how my involvement and evolvement with the sport literally “took-off”. My dream was to find perfection. Tennis gives you unlimited feedback to achieve the best qualities of yourself, it sort of acts as psychotherapy. I am living and fulfilling a dream, a dream of every tennis coach. I am at the highest level of professional tennis, coaching my kids, and that makes it the most special journey of them all. I don’t know of what the future beholds and, I don’t want to know. Because living in the present is all that matters. I am so grateful to where my life has brought me. Everyday I wake up I am on a mission to provide for society, my beloved ones and the sport of tennis. #AGreekAbroad #TheVoyageExplained

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