Serving Up Success: Greek tennis pro on career and winning formula

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Greek tennis pro Philip Zachiotis sat down at the Concho Valley Homepage to talk about his career and his keys to success.

The 23-year-old’s love of the game has led to a lifelong passion and career. Zachiotis talks about this:

“I did start playing tennis when I was three in Greece, and the resources were limited and we didn’t really have a lot of tools, so I was just trying to get the most out of it,” Zachiotis said. “That environment really made me love the sport, and then definitely made me value discipline, efficiency and adaptability. So, yeah, it has been a great journey so far.”

Zachiotis talked about the individualist parts of the sports and his love for that aspect:

“Yes, so tennis, it really helps you when you start from a young age, because it’s a really muscle memory sport,” Zachiotis said. “But what I like about tennis is that it’s an individual sport, which can also become a team sport, playing doubles or playing in a high school team or a college team. You can play on your own, but you can also play with a teammate. Specifically, I do like playing on my own, on my own game, and working on my mentality, and every aspect that you need to learn for learning how to play tennis.”

Zachiotis also talked about some of the biggest mistakes new and first time tennis players make when first starting out:

So the biggest mistake players do is the toss,” Zachiotis said. “Everything comes from the toss. A good serve comes from a good toss. Really depends on the level, especially in pro players, if they may serve 80%, the cause is going to be the toss. I’m really trying to work with my kids, starting with the toss. Usually, kids are rushing a lot, so I’m trying to calm them down and take their time, and count a couple of seconds before they toss this serve. It has been very great on that. The toss is very important.”

Watch the full interview between Zachiotis and Manny Diaz in the video player above.