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Stefanos Tsitsipas claims ATP Finals ‘are a bigger thing than a Slam’


Stefanos Tsitsipas has suggested that winning the ATP Finals is ‘bigger than’ winning a Grand Slam title, with the 2019 champion gearing up to play the year-end tournament once again.

Tsitsipas secured his qualification for a fifth consecutive ATP Finals tournament last week, when he reached the semi-finals of the Paris Masters.

It has been a varied year for the world No.6, who reached the Australian Open final in January and won a title in Los Cabos back in August.

However, following Tsitsipas’ run to the ATP 250 title in Mexico, he did not manage to win back-to-back matches again until October in Antwerp.

This coincided with numerous changes to his coaching setup involving his father, Apostolos, and former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis.

Tsitsipas has now decided to cut things off with Philippoussis, with the Greek continuing his working relationship with his father as head coach.

Since coming to this decision, the 25-year-old appears to be showing signs of form again after good weeks in both Vienna and Paris, as he looks ahead to the year-end tournament.

And Tsitsipas has suggested that the ATP Finals are the biggest tournament in the tennis calendar when speaking to the ATP, “It’s a whole celebration. The ATP Finals is a commemoration and celebration of the best of the best in our sport.”

He continued, “We all gather together and we get to play against each other and focus on the fact that we are the best in the world trying to fight for this mega trophy, which is a grand prize in our sport. It means a lot.

“I would consider it probably a bigger thing than a Slam, honestly. It has big prestige and it’s a very valuable asset if you’re able to conquer and win it.”

Tsitsipas and the rest of the ATP Finals field will find out their groups on Thursday in Turin, with the tournament commencing on Sunday 12th November.

Inside the baseline…

It is an interesting statement made by Stefanos Tsitsipas, who may have more of a connection with the ATP Finals due to the fact that has won it before, something that he is yet to do at a major tournament. Despite winning the tournament back in 2019, Tsitsipas has not managed to escape the round-robin stage since and may struggle to do so again this year as only the sixth seed.

READ MORE: ATP Finals line-up confirmed as stars compete for record prize money

Stefanos Tsitsipas at the ATP Finals

With Tsitsipas speaking about his passion for the ATP Finals, we at Tennishead wanted to look back at the former champion’s record at the year-end tournament:

Win-loss record: 6-6 (50%)

2019 (London) – Won the title (5-1)

2020 (London) – Knocked out the round-robin stage (1-2)

2021 (Turin) – Knocked out the round-robin stage (0-1, then withdrew due to elbow injury)

2022 (Turin) – Knocked out the round-robin stage (1-2)

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.