‘It’s ridiculous’ – Stefanos Tsitsipas reacts to shock French Open defeat
World number four Stefanos Tsitsipas has given his reaction to his shock fourth round defeat to young rising star Holger Rune in the fourth round stating that he was “struggling in terms of finding rhythm.”
Tsitsipas was looking to reach back-to-back Roland Garros finals but Rune, 19, had other ideas as the young Dane dominated proceedings running away with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
The Greek number one was drawn in the opposite half to tournament favourites Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal and as a result the 23-year-old was tipped to reach the final from his half of the draw.
However in the emotionally charged fourth round encounter, it was the world number 40 who was able to hold his nerve and find his rhythm on Court Philippe-Chatrier to move into the quarter-finals for the first time.
The Dane was only playing in his sixth Slam main draw of his young career and in fact, prior to arriving in Paris, Holger Rune had never won a Slam main draw match.
Reacting to the shock defeat, an emotional Stefanos Tstispas was critical of his display and that he was “struggling a lot the last couple of days in terms of finding my rhythm.”
“I was struggling a lot the last couple of days in terms of finding my rhythm,” he said. “I was very nervous on the court, being frustrated a lot, and I knew I was this way, but I couldn’t stop being like this.
“Especially when you feel like there have been a few changes in terms of equipment and stuff like that, but I wouldn’t attribute that to the equipment, I wouldn’t put all of the blame on the equipment because it’s something that I chose for my personal progress and getting better.
[I didn’t feel the pressure] absolutely not. I don’t watch draws, I don’t watch my next opponents. I pretty much know the progress and the way I need to do things in order to get to where I was last year and that doesn’t come easy, for sure. But you’ve kind of experienced it before and you know what is required for you to have a high chance and have a high stake of making it back to the final.”
Stefanos Tstsipas continued, as he opened up about his struggles in practice and the impact of a change of equipment has had on his play.
“Of course, I knew I’m going to have to play difficult opponents that know how to play on this surface, but mentally, physically, tennis-wise, I felt good. It’s just that I had a few troubles in practice. Again, back to frustration, back to not understanding certain things and certain patterns that I was trying to impose.
“You know, you do have this in the back of your head, having kind of changed a little bit of that equipment, playing with something that has helped you a lot last year get to a pretty good result, finals for the first time, it kind of stays back in your head that maybe I shouldn’t have done that.
“But no blame there, I think it actually helps me and I just hope it serves its purpose and the way I want it to be in the next couple of weeks because I want to get as many points as possible.
“I wasn’t really applying a lot of pressure, it was ridiculous at a point, and again I was stubborn, I was stubborn to change it, I didn’t want to change because it has helped me before, it has brought good results. But again, like I need to adjust way quicker, it’s too late for this stuff.”
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