Since changing his tennis racket, Stefanos Tsitsipas has looked back to his best.
The Greek player has struggled over the last two seasons and he chose for his father Apostolos to stop coaching him in 2024.
Furthermore, the 26-year-old dropped out of the top 10 last year for the first time since 2019. He looked to be somewhat regressing while the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner excelled, while Taylor Fritz produced the best season of his career in 2024.
But as with the the WTA’s Madison Keys, Tsitsipas opted to make a big change which has helped him change things around.
How has Stefanos Tsitsipas’ new racket impacted his game and is he a contender for the Indian Wells title?
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ rackets are still manufactured by Wilson, but the strings and how they are put together has been changed.
The impact has been almost instant, as Tsitsipas won his first title since April 2024 after lifting the Dubai title in February.
That result lifted him back into the top 10 and he lost just 12 through his first two matches at the Indian Wells Masters. He is looking dangerous and Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj thinks he is a top computer to take the Masters 1000 title.
“The gaps or the squares and the rackets are bigger which create easier spin and he doesn’t have to work as hard to generate the spin,” he said.
“When he has the ability to really swing through he creates such tremendous racket head speed all over the place that just allows him to sort of play a more aggressive game and have a lot more of those shots come.
“When you have that mentality as the artist that he is, that’s a beautiful place for his subconscious to take over and make those great decisions out on court.
“But this cool thing is that it hasn’t affected his serve, it hasn’t affected his touch at the net, he looked brilliant at the net and those serve numbers were impressive.
“So I really think Stefanos is announcing himself as a contender and he’s playing much better than even his number eight seeding.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas can go back into the top five if he reaches Indian Wells final
At Indian Wells Tsitsipas is on a quest to win his second successive title of the season.
He made an electric start after beating Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-2, 6-4, before Tsitsipas defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3.
Should Tsitsipas go on to reach the final at Indian Wells, he would return to the top five for the first time since September 2023.
His serve is one of his biggest weapons and Tsitsipas won 92% of his first serve points against Berrettini, and this is something Tsitsipas has been focusing on.
“I have to focus on my serve, that’s the priority,” said Tsitsipas. “I’m thinking of how I am going to hold serve, how I’m going to press the opponent. There’s an added bonus of holding easier, you have more time to focus on the return.”
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