Stefanos Tsitsipas: ‘I’ve rediscovered my love for the game’
Stefanos Tsitsipas is enjoying himself on tour at the moment after the ’emotional rollercoaster’ of the last couple of months.
The world number five has reached six finals in 2022, including at two Masters 1000 events, claiming two titles in Monte Carlo and Mallorca. But his Slam results have dwindled as the season has worn on, culminating in an unexpected defeat at the US Open to world number 94 Daniel Elahi Galan in the first round.
“I would call them emotional roller coasters,” Tsitsipas told Sweden’s SVT of his season of late. “Starting off with the US Open, which was probably one of the worst performances so far of my career. That particular match. I didn’t feel like myself at all on the court that day.
“The last couple of weeks have been great, it’s been a big transformation in terms of my psychological state. In terms of my love for the game as well. I’ve been much more in love with what I do. I feel much more connected with it.
“I feel much more happy to be out there on court and working every single day which is extremely important for me because this is what I do for a living. I really like the state of mind that I am at currently.”
The biggest career title to date for Stefanos Tsitsipas came in 2019. He won the ATP Finals on his tournament debut, defeating Dominic Thiem in the final. The Greek admits that looking back on previous seasons there is something he can learn from how he played then.
“I see more of myself, how I played the game three or four years ago, in a much more relaxed state,” he continued. “That you can’t probably see on the TV, but I feel this way myself. Whether win or lose, you feel that you are on the right track, you are doing things you are supposed to do.
“[Sometimes] you also lose track of things. Sometimes when you are trying to upgrade your game and bring your game higher, you kind of get stuck on those ideas and forget about the past values or things that brought you up there.
“It’s important to memorise and remember those things and not let them go. What I have been focusing on in the last few weeks is regenerating that looseness and spontaneity in my game, which I feel I have lost in the last couple of years and something that I definitely had when I first started.”
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