Tennis News: Novak Djokovic, Apostolos and Stefanos Tsitsipas

Novak Djokovic is likely still basking in the glory of winning an Olympic gold medal for Serbia. His prior best had been bronze. In order to win gold, he had to defeat Carlos Alcaraz in the final which meant the Serb had to defeat perhaps the best current player on the ATP tour. He did so in straight sets (with two-tie breaks).

The Serb's next scheduled event was the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio. Like every Masters 1000 and every Grand Slam, Djokovic has won in Cincinnati multiple times, including last year when he defeated Alcaraz in three sets in the final. Djokovic has decided not to play at the Western and Southern Open this year, however.

The Cincinnati Open announced Djokovic's withdrawal on Thursday. To be fair, the Serb not playing should not come as a shock. He has nothing left to prove in his career and regaining ATP No. 1 is probably not a priority to him. He would rather try to succeed in the Grand Slam events.

Novak Djokovic out of the Cincinnati Open and Stefanos Tsitsipas bickers with his father

The next of those tournaments will come when the US Open begins on August 26. Djokovic is expected to be in New York to try to defend the title he won in 2023, but one issue he might have is that he will not have played a hard-court tournament since Indian Wells in March. He knows better than anyone else how to prepare his body for the surface, but he might be a bit rusty as well.

In stranger news, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has not had the best form lately, was bounced out of the Canadian Open in the second round. During the match, he was given a code violation for saying something nasty to his coach, who also happens to be his father, Apostolos. Stefanos' father has been his coach for his entire career, but one might wonder if that is about to end.

The Greek's complaint about his form was his forehand, which has been a bit of a mess. In his post-match press conference, Stefanos said, "I’ve already been complaining to my coach about (the forehand issues) for the last four-five days. That was also the reason why I had a confrontation with him during the match, I’m not used to it...I need and I deserve a coach that listens to me and hears my feedback as a player."

The problem is that Stefanos has been playing tennis long enough that he should know how to fix his own concerns. Having a coach who can teach and get a player to change well is great, but ultimately, success or failure is up to the player. Instead of blaming his father, maybe Stefanos Tsitsipas simply needs to focus on himself.

Update: On Friday, Stefanos announced he was making a change of coaches and Apostolos would no longer be coaching him.

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