Though 2026 proved to be his most successful season on the Tour, with him defeating many top-tier opponents, Thiago Agustin Tirante never really found happiness. His morale wasn’t at its best as he wasn’t able to adapt to the grueling demands of the Tour. This gradually started affecting his mental health, and Tirante found himself in an unfortunate situation. But he has now finally found light at the end of the tunnel, and this has improved his overall condition.
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“The most important thing for me at the moment is not the win or the good results, but that I am enjoying playing tennis and feeling happy again,” he told Bolavip. “I haven’t really been happy for the last couple of years, but I am happy now. I am starting to understand what tennis means, and the most important thing for me has definitely been to improve my mental health. I have always had the game, but I wasn’t feeling mentally well.”
One of the main reasons why Tirante struggled with his mental health was that he constantly had to stay away from his home. Having come from humble beginnings, the Argentine wanted to spend ample time with his family. As a result, he found it difficult to handle the hectic life of a tennis player.
“It’s very tough to travel alone on the Tour. There are so many things that people don’t see, especially outside of the court. I think people always think we are on vacation, but we are going to so many tournaments, taking care of flights, hotels, and all this. It is a part of our life, but I just didn’t realize that in the past. Now, I know that this is my life. I have been through so many changes in my life because I am just a very humble guy from Argentina, where I grew up with my family,” he added.
But it is safe to say that those tough times are now behind Tirante. He is now in a much better position than before, and this has seen him improve his results. The 25-year-old is having a phenomenal campaign at the Stockholm Open and has reached the semifinals. This is his joint-best result of the season, as he previously reached the same stage in Houston.
In addition, Tirante also had impressive runs at the Italian Open, Canadian Open, and the Cincinnati Masters. The World No. 51 reached the Round of 16 in Rome after defeating Cameron Norrie and Flavio Cobolli. He then got the better of Taylor Fritz and Alexei Popyrin in Montreal to reach the Round of 16 again. His campaign in Cincinnati was the best of the lot as he defeated Novak Djokovic and Jakub Mensik on his way to the quarterfinals.
Tirante’s latest result was a grueling 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 victory over Alexander Shevchenko in Stockholm. He will be taking on Alejandro Tabilo in the semifinals. Having been fairly active on the Tour this season, Tirante has spent a lot of time in the locker room. But he has struggled to open up with players from other countries and has even claimed that many of them are too egotistical to even talk to him.
Thiago Tirante hasn’t had a great experience in tennis locker rooms
“No, no, no, we are not good enough at speaking to each other about it between the players, but I think so many players have a very big ego, which is a big problem that the Tour has. The top players are very closed people, and they have their own team. It is quite difficult to speak to other players about it,” Tirante continued.
Tirante further claimed that while he has no problem communicating with fellow Argentines, the situation with European players is completely different.
“Maybe I can speak to players from Argentina but not to other players, because they are not that open. I am a very warm person, I think Argentinians are just like that, but not the European players. The Europeans are not like that. So, it’s very difficult to open up to other players, because they don’t really give you the answer you need,” he concluded.
Having had to travel mostly alone and stay in an atmosphere where he doesn’t have many friends, it isn’t a surprise that Tirante started struggling with his mental health. Fortunately for him, he has now come out of that hole and has the opportunity to reach his first final of the season.
However, Tabilo won’t be an easy opponent to defeat. The Chilean has a 2-0 lead in the H2H record against Tirante, and both of those wins came earlier this season. Tabilo defeated him 7-6, 6-7, 6-1 in Rio before racking up another hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win in Santiago. With the odds seemingly stacked against him, it remains to be seen whether Tirante will manage to get the better of Tabilo for the first time in a tour-level match.