Stefanos Tsitsipas has no regrets at finally parting ways with his father as coach, with the former world No. 3 continuing rebuilding work on his game at the Montreal Masters.

The Greek who now stands just outside the top 50 after a month’s-long slump in form, had to go through qualifying in Canada, but on Tuesday reached the second round 6-4, 6-4 over Martin Damm, Jr,, namesake son of a former Czech player.

Tsitsipas is working with “outsiders” from the Mouratoglou academy after sacking sometimes-overbearing father Apostolos for a second time.

This time, the parting seems to have taken root, with a quick dividend coming in the form of a title last month on clay in Gstaad.

“it’s a it’s a chapter that should have started a long time ago. I guess I was too patient with my time and too nice with handling certain things, to take so much time to proceed with the change. But it’s how life works,” the player said.

“Certain things come at a certain time, I’m very Buddhist in that sort of philosophy. 

“Now we are here, and we are doing it the way I like it. I want it to be done, I want it to be done with a coach that I am happy with right now… someone that I trust.”

Tsitipas said his new group – which often includes his mother Juia – “want the best for me. That’s the most important, working with those that will bleed for you.”

The former top 10 regular and two-time Grand Slam runner-up said he had a lot to learn as he went through tournament qualifying rounds for the first time in years.

“I haven’t played qualis in the Masters 1000 in a very, very long time or even never before. So I don’t really know how it works, if you’re in qualifying, if you have to actually sign in, which I was not aware of.

“But we’re here now. I’m glad I’m getting to play my second round match, and I’ve come a long way. I’d say that.

Financial fallout from skipping the Montreal Masters which began on Sunday with rain interruptions likely means little to absent drawcard Novak Djokovic, who has joined world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and injury victim Carlos Alcaraz in missing the Canadian date.

The late withdrawals from the trio of household names has hit Canadian tennis bosses where it hurts and they have called for financial and other sanctions on miscreant players.

Top seed Zverev, the world No. 2 who followed up his Roland Garros title in June with a July runner-up spot at Wimbledon against Sinner, said missing year-end bonus payments would mean absolutely nothing to the multimillionaires of the sport.

“You think Novak will care if he gets a bigger bonus? I think the guy has – if I would have to guess, the guy is north of 400 million in his bank account,” the Montreal top seed said.

“I’m not sure he would care about 50,000 (dollars) more or less.”

He added that rankings also mean little to a player who has been-there, done- that and won more than USD 190 million in prize money alone at age 39.

“I don’t think he cares about his ranking either,” Zverev added, suggesting that the controversial new format of 12-day Masters is a drain on players.

“If (the tournament calendar) goes to the old (system) and we would play one-week Masters events,” the 29-year-old said.

“If you’re forcing us to be away for two and a half, three weeks during Grand Slams and the same then goes for Masters events, you can’t force us to play. Sorry, that’s nonsense.”

Zverev suggested that the current calendar needs a major re-think.

.”I think (the player pullouts) are a result of the two-week Masters event. It’s just too long for some players, too much before the US Open.

“I used to play more 500 events, 250 events when the Masters were shorter, but now I don’t do that anymore just because of time spent away and time spent on tournaments.”

He added: “My team and I had a thought also of maybe skipping Montreal, but then we decided to play it. I need to play matches. I need to play tournaments.
“I don’t think maybe I’ll play my best tennis here, but the result of playing here, I think I’ll play better in Cincinnati and then hopefully my best tennis in New York.”

Main photo:- Alexander Zverev with Coupe des Mousquetaires after winning Men’s final – Roger Parker International Sports Fotos Ltd

Alex de Minaur saved face in an excruciating all-Aussie clash at the ATP event in Washington as he defeated the teenaged son of Australian icon Lleyton Hewitt to reach the quarter-finals.

The freshly married de Minaur played for the first time in more than three weeks after losing a Wimbledon fourth-round and then getting hitched to British player Katie Boulter.

Cruz Hewitt, 17-year-old son of Lleyton, took the 6-2, 6-3 loss as de Minaur reached the last eight of the pre-US open tune-up.

But facing the son of one of your tennis mentors was not easy for the sixth-ranked winner. who admitted that his own awkward form needs some quick improvement.

“It was definitely weird, I knew I was going to play him (Cruz) on the Tour some day, but I didn’t actually expect it to be this week,” de Minaur said.

“Even all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we’ve both grown up. I’m glad I managed to get through, but I’m sure we’re going to have many battles in the years to come.”

But those sentiments could not distract from the oddity of paying the son of a mentor and Davis Cup captain.

“I expected Lleyton to be),in the box, and helping his son. But we both didn’t know how to kind of act, right?

“It was definitely a weird situation, but now that this has happened the next time we’ll all be ready for it, that’s for sure.”

De Minaur, 27, will now line up against Brandon Nakashima, a winner over seventh seed Jakub Mensik 7-6 (5), 3-  6-4.

De Minaur is defending his 2025 title in the US capital and somehow felt lucky to escape with the win over Hewitt, Jr after a long-ish layoff.

“(This is the ) longest I’ve been without touching a racket and it’s probably the worst I felt on court after this. The body was in bits, aching all over the place.

“I felt like I aged about 20 years over 13 days but the one thing I definitely told my team was that, ‘Yeah, I can’t take this much time off’. 

“I need the body to at least keep moving because if not it’s tough to get back on the horse.”