Stefanos Tsitsipas practices with brother Pavlos as he steps up recovery from arm injury
Stefanos Tsitsipas was recently spotted practicing at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy with his brother Pavlos Tsitsipas, which bodes well for his prospects at the upcoming ATP Finals.
The Greek retired from his opening-round match at the Paris Masters with an arm injury. The 23-year-old stated that the injury had bothered him for quite some time and he didn't want to make it worse by playing through the pain.
The injury initially cast doubt over his participation at the season-ending ATP Finals. While the Greek was recently seen performing some light exercises, this is the first time he has been spotted hitting a tennis ball since his injury. From the video, it appears as though Tsitsipas has fully recovered from the problem.
After more than a decade in London, the 2021 ATP Finals are set to be hosted in Turin, Italy from 14-21 November. The Greek was the defending champion in the previous edition of the season-ending event, but failed to progress beyond the round-robin stage after winning just one match.
Stefanos Tsitsipas says it's exhausting to beat top players back to back
In a recent interview, Stefanos Tsitsipas spoke about the effort that goes into winning a Grand Slam. The Greek said he followed every single match of Dominic Thiem's title-winning US Open campaign in 2020, and saw how physically and mentally taxing the journey was for the Austrian.
"Dominic Thiem is a good example," Tsitsipas said. "He put so much physical and mental energy into winning the US Open. I watched every game he played there. It is very exhausting to beat the other good players. It sucks the energy out of your body. The key is: You have to win the games with less effort and save energy for the next match.
According to Tsitsipas, this strategy has been perfectly optimized by Novak Djokovic in recent years and Daniil Medvedev during his run to the US Open title.
"Novak Djokovic has shown this perfectly in recent years. And Daniil Medvedev showed it at the US Open," Tsitsipas added.