Stefanos Tsitsipas has said that he rates season-ending ATP Finals “a bigger thing than a Slam’ as he and the other seven players head to Turin for the prestigious event.
The year-end Championships unarguably make the biggest event on the ATP tour after the four Majors (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) but Tsitsipas has declared that he puts the year-end Finals event above the four Grand Slams.
“I would consider it probably a bigger thing than a Slam, honestly,” he told ATPTour.com. “It has big prestige and it’s a very valuable asset if you’re able to conquer and win it.”
Earlier this year the Greek said that he will value the No. 1 ATP rank ranking over a Major title.
“Did you know? I’ll trade it for being number one. It is definitely something special, it is a sign that you have reached the maximum in your career and I like it when you are able to maximize everything. This way, one day I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I have been number one,” he told EL UNIVERSAL Deportes.
The World No. 6 has qualified for the year-end ATP Championships for the fifth time in a row this year. Tsitsipas clinched the ATP Finals title in 2019 as a debutant but didn’t make it past the round-robin stage since then.
Speaking to the Spanish media, he added: “It’s a whole celebration. The ATP Finals is a commemoration and celebration of the best of the best in our sport.
“We all gather together and we get to play against each other and focus on the fact that we are the best in the world trying to fight for this mega trophy, which is a grand prize in our sport. It means a lot.”
2023 ATP Finals are scheduled to get underway on Nov 12 and will be played at Pala Alpitour in Turin till Nov 19. 1,500 ranking points are up for grab for the winner while the prize money is raised to record $4,801,500 – the biggest ever in tennis. Tsitsipas will join the loaded field of world top 8 players including defending champion and World #1 Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, and Holger Rune.