There is little doubt that Stefanos Tsitsipas has immense skill. The issues for him seem to be that he is either in peak form or he is extremely inefficient. There appears to be little middleground for the Greek.
Once a staple in the top ten of the ATP rankings, Tsitsipas has struggled quite a bit over the last couple of years. He won only one title in each of 2023 and 2024. The last six months of last year were some of the worst tennis he has played in his professional career. It was enough for him to fire his father, his long-time coach, in August of 2024. He needed to make changes to improve his game.
His performance only got a bit better, though. He reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters in October, but he was bounced out of the first round of the Australian Open this January. He was still in between, and there was no reason to think he would do well at this week's Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. If we did think that, however, we were wrong.
Stefanos Tsitsipas defeats Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
While the Greek did not play a seeded player all tournament, he did face some quality ones. Mario Berrettini, when healthy, and he is, is a formidable force. Tallon Griekspoor is no slouch. Neither is Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has won two tournaments already in 2025.
For Tsitsipas to defeat Auger-Aliassime in the final in Dubai, he needed a quick start, and that he got. After the players held to 3-all, the Greek got a break to lead 4-3. He then held and got his second break to take the first set 6-3. The magic was that Tsitsipas was serving metronomically, but his whip-like backhand, one of the best on the ATP tour when it's on, was pushing the Canadian back.
The Greek also played bigger in the more important points. He saved all seven of his break points, for instance. The only issue he was having was having too many double faults, but he was making more out of his return chances.
Auger-Aliassime has always been a good player, but he also is just inconsistent enough to not take control of some matches he should have. He had his chances against Tsitsipas but could not take advantage. That is the difference between being a solid player consistently ranked in the top 30 and one capable of winning majors. Auger-Aliassime cannot do that yet.
In the second set, Tsitsipas got the break of the Canadian at about the same spot as the first set. The Greek held to make the set 4-3 and then broke Auger-Aliassime to lead 5-3. He easily held serve to win the match. In doing so, Tsitsipas showed he was back to being a dangerous player on tour, will move back inside the top 10 of the rankings, and won only the second outdoor hard court of his career.