Stefanos Tsitsipas' mother Julia on the moment she felt proudest of Greek: "You were still fighting... maybe one of the reasons you grew up introvert"
Stefanos Tsitsipas's mother recently revealed the proudest moment of her life as a mother. On the occasion of Mother's Day, she sat down with her son Stefanos and talked about how his resilience as a child made her proud as a mother.
The Greek had a tough start to his Italian Open campaign but won the contest against Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the third round of the tournament.
Tsitsipas recently sat down for a candid interview with his mother Julia Apostoli, where she shared some interesting anecdotes of her life. When asked by Tsitsipas about her proudest moment as a mother, she recalled an incident from her son's childhood. The video was shared by Tennis Channel on X (formerly Twitter):
"When you were small and you were very teeny, the boys at school or on court they could handle you easier than maybe you expected. And you were still there, you were still fighting. Closing little bit and that was maybe one of the reason you grew up into introvert," she said [at 5:30].
The No. 6 seed had a tough outing in the first match of the tournament, with the first set going to the tiebreaker where Struff defeated his opponent after leading the game 5-0. However, Tsitsipas clinched the next two by winning two of three breaks of serves in both sets. He will now face Cameron Norrie on Friday, May 13.
"Accidentally! I was supposed to be a diver" - Tsitsipas's mother on how tennis came into her life
Julia later disclosed how she started playing tennis. She said that the sport accidentally came into her life, and she was supposed to be a diver.
"Accidentally! I was supposed to be a diver. I was taking my diving lessons in Dynamo, Moscow. The club I was playing tennis after and since I broke my arm and I didn't want to participate in practices the coach I had in diving she was very very strict," she said [at 2:22].
She further disclosed how the strictness of her diving coach made her switch sports.
"And then I decided that this is too much inhuman and I have to change the sport. And my mother brought me to tennis classes."
Julia Apostoli is a former professional tennis player with a career-high singles ranking of 194. She also won a gold medal at the 1984 Friendship Games in a doubles match. Apostoli married Apostolos Tsitsipas, who was also a tennis coach in the younger days.