Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Alexander Zverev in the semi-final of Roland Garros this Friday.
On the circuit, the Greek is inseparable from his father Apostolos, who trains him, and his mother Julia, a former champion who lives intensely in her son's matches.
Between them three, a strong relationship which made the success of the world number 5 but which can also prove to be burdensome.
At Roland-Garros,
Watching a Stefanos Tsitsipas match from the stands is a real experience in itself. Already, it allows to admire closely the one-handed backhand and mutant slaughter of the Greek, recent winner of Monte-Carlo and surely the only strong competitor for Rafael Nadal on clay at the moment. We salivate at the idea of finding the two men in the final, if the logic of the semi-finals this Friday is respected. But for what really interests us here, we have to lift our eyes from the court and look towards the box where the entourage of the world number 5 is located. And above all, above all, to open your ears wide.
The show is quite exceptional with Apostolos and Julia, the parents, who do not let go of their son for a second in a jumble of gestures and words anything but discreet. Be careful, they have nothing of mum and dad who come to see the son banging his ass to pass the time. The first is her co-trainer, with Kerei Abakar, while the second, world number 1 among juniors in the 80s, is the one who taught her everything from the age of 3. Today, the roles are clearly defined. For him the technique, for her the attitude. With extreme demand.
Parents advise it, reframe it. Calm him, too, sometimes. Illustration during the quarter-final against Daniil Medvedev, when the Russian complained to the referee to recover a first service ball after being hampered - according to him - by the lights of the Chatrier. The discussion lasts, Medvedev ends up making a new face-off and Tsitsipas makes a mistake on the return. He is about to go and tell the referee in his turn when his mother suddenly gets up and sends him back to his baseline. Like that, with a gesture.
The Tsitsipas are starting to be known on the circuit.
We can no longer count the warnings and fines taken by the father by dint of opening it when he is not allowed to do so.
An attitude that is sometimes irritating for the opponents… and for Stefanos himself.
"It's not easy to have your father as a coach, there can be tensions between us," he said during the UTS organized by Patrick Mouratoglou last summer.
He's a very good coach, but sometimes he stresses me out a lot.
"
But she is the more volcanic mother of the two.
Two scenes, again, which are worth all the great speeches.
January 2020, ATP Cup: Tsitsipas lets slip a set against Kyrgios.
Angry, he throws his racket twice towards the bench, where the daddy is.
A few seconds later, the mother comes down from the stands to yell at him like a 4 year old child.
A few weeks later, a sequence that is remembered in Dubai: The Greek said shortly before that he was sometimes "tired" of having his family with him everywhere, all the time.
Neither one nor two, the mother shows up at a press conference to ask him to repeat if he dares.
Beginning of a surreal exchange, recounted by our colleagues from
Le Figaro
.
- "Did she read my statements from a few days ago?"
That's what she's here for, isn't it?
"
- "I'm not sure you know how many great players were followed by their parents.
"
- "Yes, most of them women, not that many men."
At the moment, there aren't that many followed by their parents, with the exception of Alexander Zverev.
"
- "And Marat Safin, and Andrey Rublev?"
"
- "Give me the names of men who won Grand Slam titles, who were top 5 and followed by their parents.
"
- "You can be the first.
"
Keeping up with the Tsitsipases.
When your mother crashes your press conference and puts you on the spot ... #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/OfwX3EZx4M
- Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) February 28, 2020
We know at least one that the videoconferences should not disturb.
More seriously, Tsitsipas's relationship with his mother is everyone's.
Borrowed from an unconditional love, with the excesses that this can generate.
The only notable difference is that it encompasses personal and professional life, every day of the year, in a very exposed universe.
"Sometimes I want to be alone, away from others, and not have them around me all the time," the 22-year-old explained in an interview with
Tennis Major
in April.
I know they love me and their support is wonderful.
I'm really happy that we're so close and they've played a huge role in my life, obviously.
It's just that it can get boring.
"
"An incomparable relationship of trust"
All this is obviously a hell of a good subject of study for sports psychologists. Sophie Huguet, who has been following athletes for 20 years, agrees to stick to it. “It can be complicated if the player does not know if he has his parent or his coach in front of him. We must manage to keep healthy and balanced parent-child relationships, which do not revolve only around performance, she observes. It is a very particular family pattern, which may not suit all players, but there is also an incomparable relationship of trust. "
Of course, a third person could never achieve in 10 years the degree of natural intimacy that binds a child to his parents.
The specificity of tennis means that this configuration is not a rarity.
It's a sport that requires investment of time and money, and a lot of times it's the parents who play the leading roles at the start - especially when they're translating an unfulfilled dream, but we don't target anyone.
A situation that can continue, for better or for worse.
Mom Tsitsipas and mom Zverev know each other very well
We can observe that the thing is quite widespread among the Russians, in particular. Zverev, Tsitsipas' semi-final opponent, is in exactly the same situation. Her father is her coach, but it was her mother, Irina Zvereva, who put her in tennis as soon as he was able to stand on her feet.
Fun fact
, the two mothers know each other very well. Together, they embodied the future of Soviet tennis 40 years ago. They are equally involved today, but each with their own character.
Can we imagine Tsitsipas going out of this pattern one day?
He alone has the answer.
“I think he gets a lot of strength and energy from having his parents by his side.
For now, that must be fine with him.
But we see it with Caroline Garcia, it's never easy to tell your parents that you would like them to be less present, ”recalls Sophie Huguet.
Especially in the middle of a tennis match.
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