Stefanos Tsitsipas recently spoke about his new coach Goran Ivanisevic and his evolved relationship with his ex-coach and father.
Speaking on The Changeover Podcast, Tsitsipas said it’s not just the physical skills and on-court aspect that is important with a coach.
“We shared a similar culture, I would say that also helps a little bit,” Tsitsipas said, “we’re not too far apart, he’s Balkan as me.”
He added that this was something he has lacked when bringing in former players to his coaching situation, except for with Mark Philippoussis.
He feels like he can get a mental edge in his time with Ivanisevic.
“I feel like that’s a part of an identity in a coach that is important… to not only coach me on how I can hit better forehands and backhands, but also coach me in in the way I should probably be thinking and the way he has faced situations in his own personal career and maybe pass on those tough experiences, those adversity moments and teach me through his own experiences.”
The 26-year-old is also looking at this partnership as a long-term thing that’ll be fruitful in time.
“I am not expecting this to be suddenly something that starts giving me titles from week one or week two,” he said.
“I’m focusing more on the long process of it, the whole journey of working with him and my whole goal with that is to try and see improvements.”
He wants to understand why he does certain things wrong and how to better them.
On the topic of coaches, the No.1 Greek was asked about his relationship with his father, who used to coach him before their highly publicised split.
“Our relationship has actually gotten better over the last couple of months,” Tsitsipas said.
“It was very hard and difficult in the beginning when we split… It was very hard for him to accept that he’s not part of my inner circle anymore.
“He’s still my father and he’s still someone that remains dear and close to me.”
But Tsitsipas felt like he was with him too much and that his father was living his own dream through him, which took away from their coaching relationship.
“It reached a point before where tennis got too much in the way, and as bad as it sounds, I think it became even toxic in a way because he was I felt like he was constantly hunting,” he said.
“It reached the point where he was hunting more than me and that’s where the pressure kicks in. That’s where I feel the toxicity of it all.”
He said that’s not what he envisioned with tennis, he wants to achieve big things in much healthier and “less greedy” state.
Tsitsipas also opened up on his start in tennis and how he wasn’t focussed on making friends but rather focus on just his tennis.
But this was because of his upbringing and the lack of opportunities he had.
“I knew that my parents sacrificed a lot for me at the time. I wasn’t very flexible in terms of funds and money to travel,” he said.
“I knew that my parents were struggling a little bit because of the economic crisis that happened in Greece.
“My father was jobless, we were solely sort of depending on my mother’s side. She had her sister that was helping us a little bit travelling around.
“I didn’t have a sponsor. I didn’t have any federation supporting. I felt the responsibility of that, but it never really created pressure because I was really confident in myself and my abilities as a player.”
Full podcast episode below
