A true tragedy in the original, ancient sense befell Greece in the tennis world. Namely, although one of the best players of this sport of all time, Pete Sampras, is actually an ethnic Greek who visited the Greek Orthodox Church every week, sports history will remember this winner of 14 Grand Slam titles and former number one as an American tennis player.
To make matters worse for the Greeks, their roots include former World No. 8 and Wimbledon and US Open finalist Mark Philippoussis, as well as newer generation tennis players Nick Kyrgios (ranked 13th, Wimbledon finalist) and Thanasi Kokkinakis (ranked 65th).
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However, all three were born in Australia, which is where they decided to perform as professionals. We can also add to the list the former finalist of the Australian Open and the eighth tennis player in the world, Markos Baghdatis, who achieved the mentioned successes under the flag of Cyprus, but always had the huge support of the Greek fans who considered him their own. Greece just received Stefanos Tsitsipas, believe it or not, the first tennis player in the history of this country who became a member of the Top 100 on the ATP list. In the following lines, we will get to know the ten best Greek tennis players in singles when we take their best career ranking on the ATP rankings as a criterion.
11. MICHAIL PERVOLARAKIS
We start the list with one active player. Although he was born in Cyprus, under whose flag he played until 2018, Pervolakis has been playing for Greece ever since and at one point reached the 366th place he held on January 10, 2022.
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However, the career of this former student of the University of Portland has been in free fall since then, so that today he does not have a ranking on the ATP rankings.
10. ANASTASIOS VASILIADIS
Next on the list is Anastasios Vasiliadis who reached the 365th place on the ATP rankings on June 7, 1999, which is his best singles ranking in his career.
Vassiliadis represented Australia as a junior, but in his senior career he defended the colors of Greece, for which he won gold in doubles with Konstantinos Economidis at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunisia.
9. STEFANOS SAKELLARIDIS
We continue on with one young player, who is only 20 years old, but according to his career-high ranking, he has already reached the ninth place in our list of the best Greek tennis players of all time.
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On September 8, 2025, Stefanos Sakellaridis reached the 286th place in the ATP list, which is still his best ranking to this day.
8. THEODOROS ANGELINOS
Former University of Virginia student Theodoros Angelinos achieved his career-high singles ranking on December 2, 2013, when he ranked 251st.
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7. NICOLAS KELAIDIS
Nick Kelaidis was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but represented Greece as a professional. His best ranking in singles is the 244th place he was on September 27, 1974.
In Grand Slam tournaments, his best results are the first round of the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
6. GEORGE KALOVELONIS
George Kalovelonis was on the threshold of entering the top 200, but still the 208th position (June 23, 1986) remained his best ranking.
It will be recorded that this Athenian represented Greece at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, where he was defeated in the first round.
5. SOLON PEPPAS
Peppas reached his best ranking in his career on August 21, 2000, when he was ranked 149th in the ATP singles rankings.
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He played 23 times for Greece in the Davis Cup.
4. VASILIS MAZARAKIS
Although he never managed to debut in one of the Grand Slam tournaments, Vasilis Mazarakis was within reach of entering the company of the top 100 on the ATP rankings. Be that as it may, the 115th place he was on October 10, 2005 was recorded as his best ranking. In his career, he managed to reach the main draw of one Masters tournament, more precisely, Indian Wells in 2006, where he was defeated at the start by Andy Murray.
Paired with Boris Pasanski from Serbia, he reached the finals of the ATP tournament in Buenos Aires in the same year in the doubles competition. In doubles, he had a slightly better ranking on the 101st place in the ATP rankings. He played for Greece at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in a pair with Konstantinos Economidis where they were defeated at the start.
3. KONSTANTINOS ECONOMIDIS
Economidis is next on our list with the 112th position he held on February 5, 2007 as the best ranking in his career.
Economidis played in three out of four Grand Slam tournaments, and his biggest success was the second round of Roland Garros in 2007. At the Australian Open and Wimbledon, he failed to get past the first round. As the only Greek tennis player in singles, he played at the 2004 Olympic Games in his homeland, but was defeated in the first round by the Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, who later won bronze medal.
2. NICHOLAS KALOGEROPOULOS
Until the appearance of Stephanos Tsitsipas, the most successful Greek tennis player of all time was Nicholas Kalogeropoulos. Born in San Jose, Costa Rica to Greek parents, Nicholas reached the 108th ATP ranking on September 26, 1973 under the Greek flag.
Photo: Nicholas Kalogeropoulos (left) and Roger Taylor (right). Source: Wikimedia Commons
He was also quite successful at the Grand Slam tournaments where he reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and the third round of Roland Garros twice. He won a bronze medal in singles for Greece at the 1971 Mediterranean Games in Izmir, Turkey.
1. STEFANOS TSIPAS
And finally we come to the most successful Greek tennis player of all time – Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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Although still an active player, Tsitsipas has already achieved results that are far ahead of all his Greek predecessors. He reached the third place in the ATP rankings on August 9, 2021. He is the only Greek who played in all four Grand Slam tournaments and reached the finals in two of them. At Roland Garros in 2021 and at the Australian Open in 2023, Novak Djokovic stopped him both times on the last step to the trophy. The defeat in the Garos final was extremely painful when Djokovic managed to make up for two sets behind and leave the Greek without a trophy. At Wimbledon, Tsitsipas reached the round of 16 on two occasions, and at the US Open to the third round, also on two occasions.
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At the Olympic Games, he defended the colors of Greece in Tokyo 2020, where he reached the third round, and in Paris 2024, where he was once again stopped in the quarterfinals by Novak Djokovic, who later won the gold medal.
Tsitsipas’ greatest success to date is definitely winning the final ATP tournament in 2019 at the O2 Arena in London, when he won one of the most valuable trophies in the world of tennis by defeating Federer in the semifinals and Thiem in the final. In addition, he has won a total of 3 Masters titles so far in his career.
🤔🇬🇷 In a recent interview, Stefanos Tsitsipas suggested that winning the ATP Finals is ‘bigger’ than winning a Major title:
“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… pic.twitter.com/3uFByvaXNe
— Olly Tennis 🎾🇬🇧 (@Olly_Tennis_) November 8, 2023
Although his career has stagnated in recent years, he is still young enough to improve on his best results and further cement his place in sports history as the best Greek tennis player of all time.
