Stefanos Tsitsipas needed a good result to overcome the long crisis that has hit him, although he is aware that the path is still very long. The Greek ace had not started the 2025 season in the best way with the premature elimination at the Australian Open, a tournament that had almost always seen him as a protagonist and in which he had reached the final in the 2023 edition.
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The champion fromAthens certainly needed a shake-up at this stage of his career and decided to change rackets, using a model very similar to that of Carlos Alcaraz (albeit with different and customized specifications).
The former Top 10 played great tennis in Dubai this week, reaching his first final since Barcelona ATP 500 in spring 2024. In addition, Stefanos has qualified for his first hard court final in more than a year and a half.
After defeating Italian ace Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals at the end of a tough battle, the Greek repeated it against Tallon Griekspoor in the semifinals yesterday.
The Dutch player was perhaps a little tired after achieving a titanic feat against Daniil Medvedev the previous day, but that does not detract from the excellent performance of 'Tsitsi'.
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Camille Pin praisesTsitsipas
The 2019 ATP Finals champion who had already reached the final in Dubai in 2019 (when he lost to Roger Federer) will face Felix Auger-Aliassime for the title today.
Speaking on 'Eurosport France', former player Camille Pin praised Tsitsipas: "He played really fantastic tennis this week. We saw him more confident with the backhand, he used the drop shot with great intelligence and managed all the matches impeccably from a mental point of view.
He always continued to fight, even in the most difficult moments. He finally proved why he was world number 3 and a Grand Slam finalist.
It could be the beginning of his rebirth."
After reaching the final at the 2023 Australian Open, the Greek struggled a lot to play his best tennis and was often disastrous outside of red clay.
