Tsitsipas Says Letting His Father Be a Father Again Freed His Tennis

Update, October 21: Tsitsipas beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1, 6-2 in the Almaty round of 16 on Wednesday, ending the 38-year-old’s career in his farewell tournament, and asked him for an autographed shirt after the match. The closing section of this page carries the result and what comes next.

Stefanos Tsitsipas says his road back began with letting go of the one relationship that built his career. In a Times of India interview at the Almaty Open published on Tuesday, the 28-year-old said allowing his father to be a father again, rather than both father and coach, has improved their relationship and freed his tennis. The numbers he brought with him are hard to argue with: 16-14 across his first 16 events of the season, then 21-8 in the 10 tournaments since the split just before Wimbledon.

What did Tsitsipas actually say about his father?

That the two roles could no longer live in the same person. “I love my father, and I love him as a father,” he said in Almaty. “I want to keep the professional part out of my relationship with my father. My relationship with him has improved now that he’s not my coach. It was very difficult for me to separate the coach and the father. I had reached a point where I could not avoid being triggered.” The interview recounts the public side of that strain, a father in his fifties hurling instructions from the box and heated exchanges between the two at tournaments around the world. “We’re still in touch, and I really like the way things are right now,” he added.

When did the split happen, and what came before it?

Just before Wimbledon, when he told Greek media he was ending the professional relationship for good. The dip had started with his body, a back problem troubling him for some time, and the strained coaching relationship compounded it until his confidence went with it. A player who finished in the top 10 for five straight years from 2019 to 2023, and reached the Roland Garros final in 2021 and the Australian Open final in 2023, fell to No. 88 in June. The Times of India lists him at No. 39 this week; Tennis Majors, in its own Almaty reporting, lists No. 43. The two reports disagree on the exact number, and this page does not merge them. Both agree on the direction of travel.

What does he say changed once the pressure came off?

His willingness to experiment. “Eliminating the pressure factor does help,” he told the Times of India. “Before, I felt pressured a lot of the time. There were a lot of things piled up within me, and certain people triggered me in a negative way. Removing some of those triggers, and having people around me who keep me calm and help me be more forgiving on myself when things don’t work out, allows me to experiment more and not be afraid to try things.” He went further than form: “I’m playing better now than I played a few years back. I feel like I was kind of stuck in the past.” The revival has already had its strange chapters, including the Shanghai night when a ball fell from Fritz’s pocket twice and Tsitsipas had to earn match point again, a win over the world No. 12 that sits inside the 21-8 run alongside victories over Arthur Fils and Jiri Lehecka.

Who is around him now, and what is the autumn plan?

Thomas Perrin day to day, with Patrick Mouratoglou overseeing the process. Tennis Majors, reporting separately from Almaty on Sunday, has the other half of the revival: a body that finally allows a full schedule. “Last year, I didn’t have a healthy body, and it affected my ranking and my confidence,” he said. “But now suddenly I can have long runs without being affected by it.” That is why a player of his standing is loading up on autumn 250s. He is accumulating points to close the season strongly, be seeded at the 2027 Grand Slams and avoid big names in the early rounds, and he expects next season to be about being hunted rather than hunting. He credited Perrin, who joined from the Mouratoglou Academy, with bringing calmness and a collaborative approach. The backhand tells the same story in miniature: one of only three top-50 players with a one-hander, long targeted by opponents, he now calls it a weapon, which is a long way from the week Zverev saved four set points against Alexander Bublik in Shanghai while Tsitsipas was still rebuilding.

What happened against Kukushkin, and what comes next in Almaty?

Tsitsipas won the round-of-16 match 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday, in just over an hour, with eight aces and four break points converted, Field Level Media reports. The result ended Mikhail Kukushkin’s career. The 38-year-old home wildcard, who turned professional in 2006, had kept his farewell alive by beating Stefanos Sakellaridis in the first round, and he saved three match points before going out, Tennis Majors reports. Tsitsipas then reversed the usual ceremony: he asked Kukushkin for an autographed shirt, told the crowd “This is his moment. This day is entirely dedicated to him,” and posted his own tribute calling Kukushkin a trailblazer for Kazakh tennis in the 2010s, Tennis Now reports. Kukushkin finishes with 175 ATP Tour wins and one title, at St. Petersburg in 2010, per Tennis Now. Brussels produced the opposite farewell the same night, as David Goffin postponed his own retirement with a comeback from 3-0 down in the deciding set.

Next for Tsitsipas is a quarter-final against James Duckworth, who upset second seed Luciano Darderi 7-5, 7-6 (7) with 17 aces, Field Level Media reports. He is not the only player in the Almaty draw starting over with a new voice this week: Karen Khachanov opens the same event having split with Vedran Martic after nearly 10 years. The draw matters less than what the week is for. Every autumn win is a seeding argument for January, and every interview like Tuesday’s is a player explaining, in his own words, that the fix was personal before it was technical. The contrast with the season’s other coaching stories, from Ben Shelton’s birthday win in Shanghai to Jannik Sinner ending his season for knee treatment, is that Tsitsipas is the rare case where the split made the family closer and the tennis better at the same time. Whether that holds through the indoor swing is the next question, and it is his to answer on court. That swing is being reshaped by absence as much as by form: the week after Almaty, Sinner will not defend his Vienna title and Alcaraz has taken the wild card into the draw.