Stefanos Tsitsipas’ father under scrutiny as coaching methods questioned

Stefanos Tsitsipas has likely become too dependent on his father and coach with Apostolos Tsitsipas’ coaching methods questioned by an ATP-accredited coach.

Former world No 3 Tsitsipas is experiencing the worst slump of his professional career as he has dropped to No 66 in the Live Rankings following his first-round exit from this week’s Monte Carlo Masters, a tournament he has won three times.

The Greek has not won a title or reached a final since he lifted the Rotterdam Open trophy in February 2025 and he has made several coaching changes in the past year in an attempt to regain form.

He hired 2003 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic in May last year, but it was a disastrous partnership that ended after only a few months with the Croatian criticising Tsitsipas’ work ethic.

Apostolos – who had coached his son from 2004 until 2021 – returned following Ivanisevic’s exit, but the relationship between father and son has not always been a happy one as Stefanos admitted after their reunion: “He [Apostolos] definitely made me lose my control, my inner control as well. But we’ve talked a lot. Since then, we’ve spent a lot of weeks together.

“He’s been on a tour occasionally here and there, not as my coach, but as my father.

“I think I have to be strict with him. Sometimes I feel like he wants to do too many things on his own.”

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Apostolos has in the past been criticised – both by his son and tennis commentators – over his conduct during matches as he is often heard shouting at Stefanos and Danish tennis coach, mental coach and author Adam Blicher believes that is due to his coaching methods.

During an interview with Nicholas Albek on the SpilXperten podcast, ATP-certified coach Blicher explained: “It starts on the practice court, I think. Why does someone like Tsitsipas’ father talk so much? I think he does it with a kind of misunderstanding – that the more I say, the more I help. In reality – again, all the way back from the practice court — he ends up making Tsitsipas [Stefanos] dependent on himself.

“That stands in direct contrast to the fact that when you’re out on the court, you stand alone. The more you see players looking over at a parent or a coach, the more it’s a cry for help. Like, ‘I simply haven’t learned to solve this situation myself.’

“And I think, as tennis coaches, we also believe that we’re helping when we say a lot. We try to give the solutions, but in reality we should try to design exercises that create a problem on the court, so they themselves can figure out how to organise themselves out of that situation and solve the problems themselves.

“Then we as coaches can help and guide, but tennis is an open-skill sport. It’s not golf, where you can do repetition, repetition, repetition. In tennis, it’s different all the time. We have to be supportive and not dictate what they should do.”