As the ATP Tour approaches the end of what has been a turbulent season marred by COVID-19 Stefanos Tsitsipas has a testing time ahead of him.
The 22-year-old Greek sensation will return to action this week in Vienna for the first time since his semi-final loss to Novak Djokovic at the French Open. He is one of six top 10 players featuring in this year’s star-studded draw where he will make his debut in the event. At stake is a chance for him to win his sixth ATP title and his first at a 500 event.
“I would like a title and play good tennis. I’m happy when I see myself playing good tennis,” Tsitsipas said of his year-end objectives during a virtual press conference on Monday.
Besides the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsitsipas is hoping to continue what has mainly been a successful year for him where he has won 27 out of 37 matches played on the Tour so far. Although there have also been the inevitable blips with him losing to Borna Coric after having a two-set lead at the US Open followed by a second round loss to Jannik Sinner at the Italian Open.
Speaking out about the brief spell of patchy play, the world No.5 explained that he went through a stage of trial and error where he tried to add new elements to his game. An approach that ended up being short lived.
“It was a period where I was trying and testing new things,” he said. “I just happened to try these new things during the US Open swing and Rome. Then I went back to my old ways and I started feeling more comfortable and confident on the court after that.”
Although to every drawback is a silver lining for Tsitsipas who says he has learned a lot since lifting the biggest title of his career so far last November. At the ATP Finals in London he defeated Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem en route to the trophy. Since then his only other triumph occurred at an ATP 250 event in Marseille, France.
“A lot of things have changed (since the ATP Finals). I think I’ve grown up and faced pain on and off the court. So there were a lot of lessons to be taken and I had a lot of matches since that time but not as many as I hoped to have due to COVID,” he reflected.
Unlike Vienna this week, there are currently no plans to allow fans to the season finale in accordance with local COVID-19 regulations. Although Tsitsipas has insisted that it will have no impact on his performance. Last year the ATP Finals attracted 242,883 fans to The O2 across the eight days of competition.
“It will be sad that we won’t have spectators but that won’t stop me from playing good tennis and wanting to repeat the same thing as last year.”
The immediate focus is on Vienna this week where Tsitsipas will start against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. Somebody who he has previously experienced difficulty against with their head-to-head tied at 2-2. Three out of their four meetings have gone the full distance with Tsitsipas winning their most recent clash in Dubai earlier this year.
“Right now, I’m not thinking about the ATP Finals. I’m focusing [on] this week and then next week in Bercy. I feel like these are tournaments that I can do better [at] this year and have a better version of Stefanos on the court, so I’m glad that I’m here,” he said.
“I’m glad that we get to play these tournaments given the current state of the world.”
Tsitsipas is the third seed in Vienna.
