Tsitsipas's mother Julia Salnikova: "Stefanos has been working on his tennis style for a long time" - UBITENNIS

Tsitsipas’s mother Julia Salnikova: “Stefanos has been working on his tennis style for a long time”

By sampaolo
3 Min Read

Twenty-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek player to win an ATP title in Stockolm and triumphed in the final of the Next Gen Finals in Milan beating 19-year-old Alex De Minaur. He also lost two finals in Barcelona and Toronto against Rafael Nadal.

At this year’s Canadian Open in Toronto Stefanos beat Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Kevin Anderson becoming the first player to score four consecutive wins against top-10 players in the same tournament.

Tsitsipas started playing tennis at the age of 3 with his parents, who worked as coaches at a summer resort in Greece. Stefanos’s mother Julia Salnikova played tennis in the Soviet era in 1980s and is now a coach. His sister Elisavet and brothers Petros and Pavlos all play competitive tennis. His grandfather Sergei Salnikov was a 1956 Melbourne Olympic gold medallist in soccer.

During an interview to the Italian Sports Daily La Gazzetta dello Sport former tennis player Julia Salnikova, the mother of Stefanos Tsitsipas, commented on his son’s breakthrough season and his elegant tennis style.

“Stefanos has been working on his tennis style for a long time. At the beginning he played one-handed backhand. Then he grew up watching Roger Federer. He made his best effort. He wanted it so bad and in the end, he did it. My husband has not always coached Stefanos. Once we saw that he liked playing a lot, we sent him to another coach, but when Stefanos started to travel around the world, my husband started travelling and working with him”, said Julia Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas is working in Athens, but also travels to France to train with Patrick Moratoglou at his famous Academy near Nice.

“At the age of 20 he seems very mature. In some aspects he is. Stefanos watches long films, loves films and relaxes with his travel video blog from major cities that he visits on tour”.

 The Athens native player started the 2018 season ranked world number 91 and ended the year ranked world number 15. In recognition of his breakthrough season Tsitsipas was also named the Most Improved player at the ATP World Tour Awards.

“We had a project and we respected it. Things went better than planned. When I watched him playing the final in Barcelona against Rafa Nadal, I said: He really became a tennis player”.

 

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