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Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas grew up wanting to become a top player and to represent his country in the best possible way. Tsitsipas, 22, is one of the most talented and promising player on the Tour and many believe he will one day become a Grand Slam champion and world No.
1. Tsitsipas is currently ranked at No. 6 in the world and his biggest title came at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2019. “It’s something beautiful to have created myself, with the help of my parents,'' Tsitsipas told Greek magazine DownTown, as revealed on Tennis Majors.
''I remember that as a child I had idols, tennis players I wanted to be like and I was sad that a country like Greece didn’t have a top athlete. We had Konstantinos Economidis, whom I supported when I was young, but we never had a tennis player in the Top 100 or Top 50, someone who would achieve good results in Grand Slams and promote the sport in the country.'
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Tsitsipas rooted for Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis
Tsitsipas was a huge Roger Federer fan growing up but he also loved to watch Baghdatis. ''There was, of course, Marcos Baghdatis, whom I watched and loved very much,'' Tsitsipas revealed.
''He was my favourite, after Federer, of course, who was my idol and the one I wanted to be like. I wished so much for something to be done in Greece, for there to be a good tennis player one day and that probably made me tougher.
I wanted to prove that we can play tennis in Greece as well. So, I went out and over the years I managed to get some results and raise the level of tennis in Greece. It was a big dream of mine and a great need for tennis to come to the forefront”.
Baghdatis, a former world No. 8, played the last match of his career at Wimbledon in 2019. Baghdatis won four ATP titles during his career.