Stefanos Tsitsipas, classé 11e mondial, aborde l'Open d'Australie avec de grandes ambitions. Le joueur de 26 ans, qui a atteint la finale en 2023 et les demi-finales à trois reprises, considère ce tournoi comme "son Grand Chelem". Il pourra compter sur le soutien massif de la communauté grecque à Melbourne. "Voyager aussi loin et me sentir chez moi me permet de jouer plus sereinement", a déclaré Tsitsipas lors de sa conférence de presse d'avant-tournoi. "Les supporters grecs apportent une énergie incroyable et me soutiennent dans les moments difficiles."
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SportTranscription
00:00Welcome back to Melbourne, Steph. How excited are you to start a new season in Australia?
00:12I'm really glad to be back to Melbourne. I can't wait to start for 2025 here in Australia,
00:21which I've talked about is my home slum. It's a great opportunity to be playing in the squads,
00:26to be receiving the crowd support that I have been receiving over the last few years.
00:30And I just hope my tennis blends in well with the rest of the crowd and I'm going to be able to
00:37really perform at my highest level and bring that tennis that I've shown in the last few years.
00:46What was your off-season like and how did you approach it? What did you want to accomplish?
00:53And was it as much a clearing of your mind as it was working through your tennis?
01:00Yes, it was very balanced out during pre-season. Obviously, as players we want to try and get the
01:09pre-season with some new equipment changes and try new things that might offer some
01:16benefit into our games. So I did that part as well as most of the players do.
01:23The only thing, it was not perhaps enough time for me to really stick to something because I was
01:28just trying briefly and trying to keep it... I didn't have a very long pre-season compared to
01:35some other players. I think it was something like three and a half weeks, which is still all right.
01:42I wouldn't consider it short. But I worked very hard in Dubai, getting ready for Australia.
01:52And overall, very happy with the way I committed to the work and my mentality during the pre-season
01:58seemed pretty good. I was in a good place. I was patient with the work. Obviously,
02:05there was my fair share of suffering too, which requires some physical work, which
02:11also means that I have to overcome some difficult moments during pre-season, such as fatigue and
02:17tiredness. And I did overcome it. So I was expecting the tough job to be done
02:22and it ended up happening the way I did expect it to happen.
02:28Ayush from Sportskeeda. Zverev was here yesterday and he talked about his father being a successful
02:34coach to him. He mentioned that his father takes a back seat when it's not tennis,
02:40when it's the off-court stuff. Given you have also worked, you've trained under your father
02:45for the longest time, how much do you agree with Zverev's assessment of this?
02:50Of what?
02:53You want me to comment on his relationship?
02:56Your relationship with your father as a coach.
03:00Honestly, I couldn't have asked anything more from my father. He's been an exceptional coach,
03:05in my opinion. He's more than maxed out, but he was capable of maxing out as a coach.
03:11I'm really grateful to him. I think he's a great human being and for the sacrifices that he has
03:17put in over more than a decade, actually. I wouldn't say over the last few years,
03:21but it's more than a decade. It's his entire life. He's been through a lot of stress.
03:28Coming from a very small country, Greece, with no background, no tradition in tennis,
03:35I'm really proud of him in terms of how he carried himself and how he responded
03:40to those situations which were crucial for my tennis development.
03:44I really want to go back to those moments because these were the ones that actually
03:48shaped me as a player. These were the years that I had to show my true potential and he
03:53was there to support it. I still believe, even up to this day, he's one of the best coaches
03:58in the world and we still have a great relationship. It's just that he had to step
04:04back and allow me to discover my own path as an adult that I've been growing to be in the last
04:11few years. That's about it. He's still my father. He's still someone that comes to the court
04:18occasionally from time to time to give me some tips. He was with me in the Middle East recently.
04:23He attended a few practice sessions. I still consider him an important figure in
04:30my professional life but also in my private life. We have an incredible relationship
04:36and I owe a lot to him. I really hope he can accomplish the same things that he has done with
04:42me, with the rest of my family members that want to pursue professional tennis, but also with some
04:48other kids that he has been working with recently. He's had a pretty good success with those kids
04:54that also shows how good and capable he is as a tennis professional.