Adrift of late, Stefanos Tsitsipas steadies in beloved Monte Carlo

The early signs didn’t look great for Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

After playing his first match on main stadium Court Rainier III, he was exiled to the second-largest arena, Court des Princes, for his round-of-32 match against Tomas Etcheverry. For Tsitsipas, a two-time champion at this event, the court assignment might have felt like a splash of cold water in the face. While he was out on Princes, Jannik Sinner, the ATP’s player of the moment—and one who is three years younger than Tstisipas—was lapping up the applause, and making short work of his opponent, on the center court.

While Sinner has been rising in 2024, Tsitsipas has been falling—or at best treading water. So far this year, he hasn’t won a title or reached a final, and he has lost a series of matches to players who were once comfortably below him on the ATP totem pole—Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, Jiri Lehecka, and Denis Shapovalov. His ranking has slipped from a high of No. 3 to No. 12. In the eyes of the tennis media, Tsitsipas has become a cautionary tale about the perils of using a one-handed backhand.

So few viewers were likely surprised when he went down 15-40 in his opening game against Etcheverry. The 24-year-old Argentine is a solid clay-courter who has cracked the Top 30. He seemed like a guy who could exploit Tsitsipas’ one-handed weakness, and another in that long line of lower-ranked players who could build confidence with a win over the Greek.

Except that’s not how it worked out. At all. Tsitsipas saved those two break points with some aggressive play, and broke Etcheverry a couple of games later with more of the same. With an early lead, Tsitsipas’s forehand become firmer, his volleys more accurate, and his movement more decisive. Instead of losing the backhand-to-backhand rallies, Tsitsipas kept Etcheverry at bay with high-kicking topspin from that side. After a little more than an hour of play, Tsitsipas had a 6-1, 6-0 win. This looked like the athletic all-courter we had seen reach the Australian Open final as recently as last year.

I felt like once the momentum was there, I felt unstoppable in some ways. Stefanos Tsitsipas

“I felt like during the rallies I was staying intact and calm,” Tsitsipas said. “I was trying to read the court and play with the trajectory of the ball.”

“I felt like once the momentum was there, I felt unstoppable in some ways.”

Why haven’t we seen more of the unstoppable Stef this season? Tsitsipas began the year in a way that no player wants: Recovering from a back injury that forced him out of the ATP Finals last November.

“It’s a tricky part of the year, because the year has just ended, and you usually, typically, get two weeks off,” he said in January. “I was away from that, trying to recover, trying to use machines and equipment that I used for these kinds of injuries. I didn’t spend that much time on court.”

Tsitsipas is well-known as a “rhythm player,” someone who needs rallies and matches to find a groove. He doesn’t win with a bomb serve or forehand; he wins by constructing points and using his speed and net-rushing skills.

When he reached the final of Roland Garros in 2021, his one-handed backhand seemed to give him an edge over his more baseline-bound opponents. But that hasn’t proven to be true on other, faster surfaces, where the one-hander can make life seem like an uphill battle for Tsitsipas, one where his return of serve in particular will always be a weakness.

Could he be destined for the same fate as Grigor Dimitrov, another player with a one-handed backhand who dropped in the rankings after an early burst?

“I do feel like it’s the most beautiful shot in tennis,” Tsitsipas says of the single-hander.

He has no regrets about choosing it, and would do the same thing today. But he also concedes that “it’s the most difficult thing to learn” in the game.

On the personal side, Tsitsipas has added and subtracted to his team over the past year. He hired and quickly parted ways with Mark Philippoussis as a coach. More lasting has been his relationship with fellow pro Paula Badosa. For tennis players, thinking of someone other than yourself 24/7 can be an adjustment. Last month, Tsitsipas talked about helping Badosa through the injuries and illnesses that have kept her on the sidelines recently.

“It does create a difficult time for not just Paula but me as well, having to be there and keep pushing her to kind of get well and jump back on the court,” he said.

“On my end, it more like I’m trying to find the right words and the right things to say.”

Tsitsipas is 25. Is he entering his prime, or will there be more young guys like Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz who will pass him in the rankings? Will his one-handed backhand become more difficult to wield as he gets older, the way it has for Dominic Thiem, or will he find a way to employ is more effectively, as Dimitrov has?

For now, Tsitsipas may be happy just to be back on clay, the surface where his brand of tennis works best. He’ll get a big test of his current level when he faces Alexander Zverev next. Tsitsipas holds a 9-5 lead in their head to head, but Zverev won their only match of 2024, at the United Cup, and has had a much better year so far.

The rematch should tell Tsitsipas, and the rest of us, where he stands among the ATP’s elite as his favorite part of the season begins.