Stefanos Tsitsipas believes he ‘has big chance to finish in World top two’ after Monte Carlo defence
Stefanos Tsitsipas has backed himself to end the season amongst the top two players in the world after defending his Monte Carlo Masters title.
At last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, World number five Tsitsipas overcame a number of challenging opponents to defend his trophy.
The Greek number one beat Italian maverick Fabio Fognini in his opening match, before edging past Diego Schwartzman in what was arguably one of the matches of the year let alone the tournament.
Tsitsipas then swept past both World number three Alexander Zverev and Spanish youngster Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to complete his defence.
Spurred on by his recent displays, Tsitsipas is hopeful of his chances of finishing his season amongst the two best players in the world.
Speaking after the final, Tsitsipas said “it was a great way to top it off with lots of fighting in the end.
“Not so much [about] going for clean winners or for too much beautiful tennis, but trying to put in the hard work in every single point and go over the limits, as I like to say.
“I have a surface that I might be adjusting [to] easier than other surfaces and we know which one that is.
“My goal ever since I have realised that … is if I’m able to score points [on] this surface as much as I can and really concentrate on the other surfaces a bit more, I can really pull off a great year, maybe even finishing among the two best tennis players at the end of the season.
“I’m always trying to bring the best I can from clay and adjust accordingly to the other surfaces. I really want to be doing well on hard and grass this year, because I feel like I can really get a lot of points there,” he outlined.
“If I’m able to win matches with the same consistency I do on this surface, I think I have a big chance of finishing the year [in] the top two, which is a huge goal of mine to be finally there and belong in that special group of players.
“My tennis is great I think everywhere, with clay maybe being the surface that I can adjust [to] the best.
“I’ve had moments where I was trying to apply what I apply on clay on hard. Doesn’t really seem to be working much. Sometimes it’s not really the way to go.
“But this has also [taught] me a lot that I should adjust and I should never really become obsessive that, ‘okay, whatever works on clay should work on faster surfaces’.”
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