Stefanos Tsitsipas claims he was ‘not 100% ready’ after shock Madrid defeat
Stefanos Tsitsipas has lost his opening match at the Madrid Open, exiting the tournament after being defeated by world No.118 Thiago Monteiro.
Tsitsipas was beaten, 4-6 4-6, by the qualifier to achieve his worst result at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament since making his debut in 2018.
Despite the disappointment, the world No.7 was full of praise for his Brazilian opponent, “I had a very good opponent on the other side of the net. He was coming up with great shots and punishing me every single time I played short. I didn’t manage to get the depth of the court.
“I just wish I was able to return the way I did in the last game. I felt out of rhythm the entire match on my returns. I felt very disbalanced and my body was going all over the place.”
This surprise loss for Tsitsipas comes after a recent run of improved results, with the Greek winning the Monte Carlo Masters and reaching the Barcelona Open final to break back inside the top 10.
The best way to start clay season ✨ pic.twitter.com/vLGSSXVWYt
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) April 14, 2024
After the match, the 2019 Madrid Open finalist implied that going deep in recent tournaments may have affected his performance yesterday.
“It’s not a great feeling but I have to accept it and move on,” said Tsitsipas. “I was not perhaps 100% ready for this match, and my opponent was 100% ready. Therefore, he walked away with the victory. He was just much more there. His senses were more present and he prevailed.”
The 25-year-old added, “I saw a few improvements that I managed to make throughout the match. They were quite late. They came quite late during the match. But I think I try and understand from these improvements that I made and reinforce them next time I step out on the court.”
Tsitsipas will now have a week off, before heading to the Italian Open where he is also a former finalist.
Inside the baseline…
Stefanos Tsitsipas had been having a tricky few months prior to the clay court season, before reaching back-to-back finals and winning his 11th career title at the Monte Carlo Masters. So despite this surprise defeat, it cannot be seen as too much of a setback in the grand scheme of things. However, if Tsitsipas was to lose early in Rome then maybe alarm bells would start to ring with Roland Garros fastly approaching.
READ NEXT: Rafael Nadal claims he is still ‘far from being able to aspire to amazing things’ despite victory
Join >> Receive $700/£600 of tennis gear from the Tennishead CLUB
Social >> Facebook, Twitter & YouTube
Read >> World’s best tennis magazine
Shop >> Lowest price tennis gear from our trusted partner
