Stefanos Tsitsipas trains with Ilya Ivashka ahead of Paris Masters

Rohit
Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 Erste Bank Open.
Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 Erste Bank Open.

After an early exit from last week's Vienna Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas is now training hard in Paris for the last Masters 1000 of the season. The Greek's practice partner on Saturday was the hard-hitting Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.

While Tsitsipas reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters in 2019, his career record at the event is just 2-3. Needless to say, he will be looking to improve on that in the 2021 edition.

The 23-year old is seeded third at the indoor hardcourt tournament, and has been drawn in the same half of the draw as Novak Djokovic. If the draw holds, Tsitsipas and Djokovic will meet each other in the semifinals at Paris.

Tsitsipas would undoubtedly have fond memories of the city; the last time he was in Paris, he reached his maiden Grand Slam final. That said, the Greek lost the final at Roland Garros to Djokovic despite leading by two sets to love, and he hasn't reached another final since.

After an opening round bye, Stefanos Tsitsipas will open his Paris campaign against the winner of the match between Lloyd Harris and Alex de Minaur. Tsitsipas has never played against Harris, but his rivalry with De Minaur is quite one-sided.

The Greek leads the head-to-head 6-0, and he even beat him a couple of weeks ago at the Indian Wells Masters.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is also playing doubles at the Paris Masters, with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open.
Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has teamed up to play doubles with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in Paris. While the 23-year-old played doubles mostly with his brother Petros Tsitsipas earlier in the year, he broke that trend by playing alongside good friend Feliciano Lopez in Vienna last week.

The duo reached the quarterfinals in the Austrian city, where they lost to the Colombian pairing of Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.

Stefanos Tsitsipas' campaign at the Paris Masters will see him playing doubles before singles. Tsitsipas and Qureshi are slated to play the French duo of Arthur Rinderknech and Benjamin Bonzi in their opening-round match.

Tsitsipas is on a collision course with Novak Djokovic in doubles as well. A possible semifinal clash between their teams could be on the cards, provided they make make it that far.

Djokovic has teamed up with compatriot Filip Krajinovic in doubles at the Paris Masters.

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