Who could have thought that a player who was outside the top-80 less than a year ago could make it to the top-10 today? Well, Stefanos Tsitsipas did the unimaginable. His rise to the top-10 of the ATP rankings is remarkably impressive and breathtaking.
Stefanos Tsitsipas was defeated by Roger Federer in the finals of the Dubai Duty-Free Championships. The no. 5 seed in Dubai lost to the Swiss in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. But the Greek moved into the top-10 despite the defeat. The next-gen star is making a debut in the top-10 rankings.
Stefanos played his first ever ATP main draw at Rotterdam Open in 2017. He qualified for 8 events in the 2017 season. However, he could not win a tour-level match until the end of the season. He defeated Karen Khachanov in Shanghai to record his first win in tour-level match.
The Greek only raised the bar for the better after the 2017 season. He was unstoppable and did not look back after that. The 2018 season was the breakthrough year for Stefanos.
He started the year by reaching the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open as a qualifier. He also made a debut to the Australian Open but lost in the first round. He made it to the quarterfinals at the Dubai Tennis Championships but the first breakthrough of the year came in Barcelona where he reached his first ATP finals. He did not lose a set on the course on reaching to the finals. The greek gun entered the top 50 after the Barcelona Open. Tsitsipas closed the clay season by recording his first ever grand slam win at Roland Garros.
He produced his best result at a grand slam event in London. Playing as no. 31 seed at the Wimbledon where he reached the third round. Tsitsipas made it to headlines at the Canadian Open after reaching the finals of the Master's tournament. Reaching his first Masters 1000 finals, he defeated four top-10 players before losing to Rafael Nadal. He became the youngest player to beat four top-10 players in a single tournament.
Not long after, the Greek won his first ever ATP title at the Stockholm Open. With this victory, he became the first player from Greece to win an ATP title. Stefanos closed the year by winning the Next-Gen ATP Finals. Playing as the top seed in the event, he defeated Alex de Minaur to win the title. He was awarded the “most improved player of the year” award for a sensational 2018 season.
Tsitsipas won just 5 matches at the major but the inexperience greek made it to the semi-finals of the Australian Open 2019. He climbed to the no.12 rank in the world after his spectacular performance in Melbourne. Coming back to Dubai, he cracked to the top-10 as he reached the finals.
Tsitsipas is surely a rising star and one of the potential players to break many records in the future. After defeating Tsitsi in the finals, Federer said, "I don't know if Stefanos was born when I won my first title. It's a privilege because I'll be watching them on the TV. It was a treat to play Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. I'm sure Stefanos will have a wonderful career. Tennis is in good hands regardless if I'm there or not”, Roger added.
Stefanos was eagerly waiting to be in the top-10 rankings. He said, What it means? I'm thinking about it almost every day. I want it badly. I want it to happen very much.”
Tsitsipas is surely a contender to win the next major. He also is the youngest player in the top-10 ATP leaderboards. The Greek has raised his bar and the quality of the game. Going into the top-10, he will have to maintain his level of performance and play constantly well in order to move up the rankings.
