Stefanos Tsitsipas reveals whether he listened to his father Apostolos' advice during Madrid Open loss

Stefanos Tsitsipas' father and former coach, Apostolos, was spotted in his son's player box during his third-round defeat to Lorenzo Musetti at the 2025 Madrid Open on Tuesday (April 29). While the Greek expressed concerns with his game afterward, he admittedly paid no heed to his father and his directions.

Tsitsipas split with his father Apostolos following an on-court verbal spat with him during his second-round loss to Kei Nishikori at last year's Cincinnati Open. The 26-year-old had employed him as his main coach since his early years on the tour. The former World No. 3 later inferred that his father's inability to take his feedback undermined his credentials as a coach.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has since traveled on the ATP Tour without a head coach and is seemingly at peace with the slow process of climbing back up the ranks. However, all is apparently not well as a few weeks ago, he told the media that his parents were trying to intervene in his career again. Against that background, Apostolos Tsitsipas being present at Caja Magica during his son's 5-7, 6-7(3) defeat to 10th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday was alarming, to say the least.

Tsitsipas wasn't too bothered by Apostolos making a return to his players' box in Madrid, though, going by his latest comments to Tennis News Greece. The World No. 18 admitted that he didn't 'listen to his father's attempt to coach him at all' as he was trying to "find solutions on his own".

"I didn't listen to him at all. I don't know what he said to me during the match, I wasn't there in the box at all and I was trying to find solutions on my own," Stefanos Tsitsipas said (translated from Greek).

The Greek also insisted that he and his team will focus on ironing out the kinks in his game, especially his return, in the upcoming days.

"I don't know, I'll talk to my team and try to solve it. There are some things I've improved, I'm putting more returns in, but I'm not pressing enough with my returns. I feel like I don't get that confidence from a return that goes where it should... I'm a little lost right now, I need to take some time and think about what I'm going to do next" he added.

During the interaction with the Greek publication, Stefanos Tsitsipas also claimed that he is "far below where I want to be."

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Stefanos Tsitsipas: "Training is okay, but I'm not happy with my level"

Stefanos Tsitsipas retrieves a shot during his Madrid Open 3R loss | Image Source: Getty

Stefanos Tsitsipas showed positive signs during his 12th tour-level title campaign at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February. Unfortunately, the 26-year-old has lost five of his 13 matches since then and has now admitted that there is improvement to be made in several departments of his game.

"I'm hoping for an improvement, because so far I'm far below where I want to be. Training is going okay, but I'm not happy with my level. I'm making a lot of errors, which I didn't do before," Stefanos Tsitsipas said. "My serve could be stronger, but I'm losing a lot of serves and as soon as I start losing serves my confidence drops a lot."

The World No. 18 will next play at the Italian Open, where he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2022.