Stefanos Tsitsipas already had loads happening as he arrived on the French Open.
He was attempting to achieve the extent of the Grand Slam champions who got here earlier than him, like Novak Djokovic, who has overwhelmed Tsitsipas in two main match finals, when he abruptly needed to defend an assault from the game’s younger stars, led by Carlos Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Spaniard ranked No. 1 on the earth. Tsitsipas, 24, has one other precedence, too — serving to his youthful brother Petros, 22, set up his personal id and grow to be a high doubles participant. They plan to play as many as 9 occasions collectively this season, no matter whether or not that helps Stefanos’s singles play, which Petros isn’t certain that it all the time does.
“I don’t think I would have done this for anyone else,” Tsitsipas stated final week, when his march towards his French Open quarterfinal showdown with Alcaraz on Tuesday was nonetheless two wins away. “This is our dream.”
Tennis has all the time been the last word household affair for the Tsitsipas clan. The mom, Julia Salnikova Apostoli, was a high Russian participant within the Nineteen Eighties and was as soon as the world’s greatest junior. The father, Apostolos, can be a seasoned participant, although not a former high touring professional. He educated as a coach and a line decide and now coaches Stefanos, although doesn’t meddle a lot when his sons are taking part in collectively.
There are two different tennis-playing Tsitsipas siblings, Pavlos, 17, and Elisavet, 15.
Too a lot household involvement can have its hazards in tennis, because the Tsitsipas household demonstrated on the Italian Open final month, when each of Stefanos’s mother and father had been speaking to him throughout his match in opposition to Daniil Medvedev of Russia. After Julia spoke to him in Russian, giving him directions that Medvedev might simply hear and perceive, Stefanos used some salty language and ordered her from his courtside field, which brought about a mini scandal in Greece. He declined to touch upon the matter upon his arrival in Paris.
For the second, his relationship with Petros is way much less fraught. But navigating all of it with a tennis racket, particularly when the exercise dominates a household’s life, requires its personal set of expertise, notably when one sibling’s expertise evolves in a method the opposite’s doesn’t, which is nearly inevitably the case in tennis.
Early final yr, after a lot time and too many losses on tennis’s again roads, Petros Tsitsipas made a giant choice — it was time to cease attempting to make it as a singles participant like his massive brother and make doubles his recreation. There was greater than tennis concerned with the transfer. He was 21 and coming off an harm, with a singles rating within the 700s. The time had come for Petros to forge his personal id and cease struggling by way of the bottom stage tournaments — “making it through the jungle,” as he described it final week at Roland Garros.
Doubles provided a path of much less resistance. Good gamers who can’t hold close to or with essentially the most elite gamers on the tour and are recreation to be taught doubles’ distinctive angles, quirks and methods can earn a good residing. They simply should be prepared to compete for a lot much less prize cash because the undercard or late-night programming at tournaments, particularly when they’re climbing the ladder.
This is the place Stefanos turns out to be useful. Because of his excessive singles rating (presently No. 5), the Tsitsipas brothers can get into big-time tournaments that Petros may not have certified for with a lower-ranked accomplice. Also, given Stefanos’s star energy, match organizers usually tend to supply them a wild-card entry into the doubles draw.
That stated, for Petros to climb the doubles rankings in a method he was not in a position to in singles, he has to play extra than simply eight or 9 instances a yr with Stefanos, to be taught the sport and win as a lot attainable. Lately, when his older brother has not been out there, he has been taking part in in tournaments on the Challenger tour with Sander Arends, a 31-year-old from the Netherlands who by no means cracked the highest 1,000 in singles however is ranked 98th in doubles. Last yr, Petros had a distinct teammate almost each week. He has climbed to a hundred and fifteenth within the rankings, from beneath 400 two years in the past.
“It’s like learning to play chess,” Petros stated.
He can discover a straightforward position mannequin throughout the locker room. Jamie Murray spent years attempting to be often called one thing moreover the brother of Andy Murray, who in 2013 grew to become the primary man from Britain in 77 years to win Wimbledon.
Jamie Murray stated he nonetheless hears individuals say, “That’s Andy Murray’s brother” when he walks across the grounds of a tennis match, one thing he realized to just accept years in the past.
“No point to fighting it,” he stated.
But Murray stated he sensed that folks stopped considering of him as a sibling of somebody higher at his sport than he was after 2016. All it took was pairing along with his brother to win the Davis Cup and changing into the world’s top-ranked doubles participant — the identical yr his brother grew to become the top-ranked singles participant.
Now he sees Petros attempting to perform the identical factor, to make his personal method with individuals taking a look at him principally as simply somebody’s brother.
“It’s not easy,” he stated.
When Petros is taking part in with Stefanos quite than with a specialist, doubles seems like a distinct recreation, Petros stated. The specialist could also be higher at doubles than Stefanos however he isn’t almost pretty much as good a tennis participant. With a specialist, the sport is all about techniques and technique. With Stefanos — as with every nice singles participant — it’s all about really feel and improvisation.
“More freelance,” Petros stated, just like the distinction between taking part in sheet music or jamming with a uniquely gifted musician who thrives on spontaneity.
It was once accepted as standard knowledge that taking part in doubles improves the singles recreation, holding reflexes sharp and the thoughts centered all through a giant match. Petros isn’t so certain that’s all the time true, particularly with the more and more bodily grind that singles has grow to be and the way totally different the fast rallies of doubles are from the baseline battles of singles.
That has not been a problem on the French Open. The Tsitsipas brothers misplaced a heartbreaking first-round match in a third-set tiebreaker.
“Trust me, it sucks,” Stefanos stated the following day. “To be losing that with your brother, it sucks more than usual.”
There isn’t any turning again now, although. As lengthy as Stefanos isn’t too worn out from a deep run on the French Open, the brothers hope to play Wimbledon, the place males’s doubles might be best-of-three units this yr as a substitute of greatest of 5. From there, in addition they wish to play the summer season tournaments in North America, together with the U.S. Open.
Petros has labored so onerous, Stefanos stated. He desires to assist him get so far as he can.
“I just want to go for it,” Stefanos stated.
They wish to characterize Greece within the Olympics, and win the Davis Cup.
“Doing that with your brother is probably the most beautiful thing you can witness on a tennis court,” he stated.
First although, he has one other matter to take care of: Alcaraz within the French Open singles quarterfinals.
Source: www.nytimes.com