Stefanos Tsitsipas, what are you up to? Getting worse and worse

The level of the Dubai tournament is definitely high: suffice it to say that it has already pitted Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ugo Humbert against each other. The champions of the last two editions against each other already in the round of 16. One of the two had to win, and it was not the Greek, who gave way to the Frenchman in just two sets: 6-4, 7-5. With this defeat, the finalist of the 2023 Australian Open and Roland Garros two years earlier has lost 500 points gained from last year’s title and plunges to the lower reaches of the rankings.

The Frenchman’s loss is the result of a loss of 500 points.

There is one merciless number that describes the 1998 class’ free fall: for the first time since the week of May 14, 2018, he will not be among the world’s top 40 when the rankings are updated on Monday, March 2. His best ATP ranking was the third place achieved on August 9, 2021, an all-time record for Greek men’s tennis and a record shared only with compatriot Maria Sakkarī.

It is true that Stefanos has shown slight improvement in recent weeks, but this has not translated into great results. Humbert, number 37 in the rankings and a specialist on hard surfaces, needed only a break in the 10th game to win the first set and another break in the 10th game of the second set to file.

Aldo Seghedoni

After many ups and downs, Tsitsipas has returned to rely on his father Apostolos as his coach. Last week, the Greek tried Carlos Alcaraz’s “cure” firsthand, trying his hand at a training section with the world No. 1. Tsitsipas, who in Doha eliminated another who must find himself as Daniil Medvedev, had then lost in the quarters to Andrey Rublev, with whom he had been very snobbish in the past: he had argued that the Russian had few qualities to be able to play tennis.

Six of the seven titles Humbert has won have come on hard surfaces.