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20-year-old Greek sensation, Stefanos Tsitsipas, has deservedly won the “Most Improved Player of 2018” award at the ATP Awards. He began 2018 ranked a lowly 91 and has now reached world number 15 in the world.
He also capped off the year by winning the NextGen ATP Finals at Milan. Let’s have a look at the year gone by and assess the performance of this future superstar and try to see what 2019 may hold for him.
In 2018, he won 41 matches on the ATP tour, a great result for someone who had managed to win only 4 matches till then and had lost ten! He also won his first ATP title at Stockholm Open defeating Ernest Gulbis, in the process becoming the first Greek player to win an ATP title.
At the beginning of the year, he reached the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open and Dubai Tennis Championship. He also made his tentative foray into Grand Slam tennis and lost in the first round of the year’s first grand slam – the Australian Open.
In the clay court of Barcelona, he produced the best result of his nascent career by reaching the final. He defeated three top 20 players on his way to the final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. This successful run propelled him to the top 50 in the world for the first time.
He got his first win at a Grand slam at French Open, where he reached the second round. At the Wimbledon, he got seeded for the first time, at number 31. He produced his best grand slam result by reaching the fourth round there, where he lost to John Isner.
In the run-up to the US Open, he produced some of his best results on the tour. He reached the semi-final of Washington Open, and then went on to beat four top 10 players in the Canadian Open to reach his first Masters 1000 Final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, once again.
He lost to fellow young player Daniil Medvedev in the US Open second round and followed that effort with some disappointing results in the Asian swing. But he regrouped himself at Stockholm to win the first ATP title by a Greek player.
He has signed off his breakthrough year by winning the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan, where he did not lose a single match. He has deservedly been named the ‘most improved player of 2018’ by ATP Awards.
After such great results in 2018, he is now seen as a top contender for ATP titles, and not just in the ATP 250 series. If he continues on his path up, great results will certainly be expected of him in 2019.
Predictions for 2019:
Ranking Prediction: Tsitsipas will enter World Top 10.
Title Prediction: At least 2 ATP tour titles
Possible Surprise: Tsitsipas could win a Masters 1000 title.
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