“His toughest opponent has always been his dad” – Fans react to Stefanos Tsitsipas reappointing his father as head coach after firing Mark Philippoussis

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost to Nicolas Jarry in the Round-of-32 of the 2023 China Open, following which he took the big decision.

“His toughest opponent has always been his dad” – Fans react to Stefanos Tsitsipas reappointing his father as head coach after firing Mark Philippoussis

Stefanos Tsitsipas and his father (Source: Daily Express)

Stefanos Tsitsipas has ended his partnership with coach Mark Phillipoussis and brought back his father Apostolos Tsitsipas to his team, taking a complete U-turn from the decision that he took about two months ago. The Greek player has stated that the main reason for this sudden move was that he could not connect to the former World No. 8’s new methods and ways of coaching, which affected his performance as a whole. 

Two months ago, Tsitsipas decided to fire his father from his coaching team after horrible back-to-back performances at the French Open and Wimbledon. He was off to a great start at the beginning of the season as he reached the final of the Australian Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. Unfortunately, things only went downhill from there. 

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Carlos Alcaraz inflicted a crushing 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (5) defeat over the Greek in the quarterfinal of the French Open, which came as a massive shock and highly affected Tsitsipas’ confidence as a whole.

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Since then, he has not made it past the pre-quarterfinals of any tournament that he played in, apart from the Los Cabos Open, which he won. Thus, in August, Tsitsipas decided to replace his father with Mark Phillipoussis in his team, as he claimed to feel ‘stagnant’ sometimes. Unfortunately, it did not work out. 

“My dad has always been next to me. Even when he was not there and people didn’t see him, he was always there by my side digitally. He’s here to stay. I have no intention of ever changing my dad or pushing him away,” Tsitsipas said. 

Read More: Stan Wawrinka earns a record to forget for himself as he crashes out in the first round of the Shanghai Masters

Twitter reacts to Stefanos Tsitsipas reappointing his father as head coach

Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Source: L’Equipe)

However, several fans across the globe have opined that it was a horrible decision on Stefanos Tsitsipas’ part to sack Mark Phillipoussis.

After all, when Tsitsipas’ downfall started, he was still under the mentorship of his father, and Phillipoussis was not given ample time to bring out the best in him or carve him into a better player. Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here is how many players reacted to Tsitsipas’ decision:

Stefanos Tsitsipas failed to impress the netizens in the China Open as well, and he lost to Nicolas Jarry in the Round of 32. It was after this defeat that he took the big decision. He will now start his campaign in the Shanghai Masters directly from the second round. 

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