Stefanos Tsitsipas has indicated that he is at a crisis point in his career after losing in the first round of the US Open on Tuesday.
The world No.11 fell in four sets to Australia’s Thanssi Kokkinakis in what is his earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament this season. It is also the third year in a row that Tsitsipas has failed to win back-to-back matches in New York. Against Kokkinakis, he produced 51 unforced errors and dropped serve six times.
Tsitsipas has now lost three out of his last four matches played on the Tour since the Olympic Games during what has been a testing period both on and off the court. He has recently decided to remove his father Apostolos as coach after publicly criticizing him at the Canadian Masters which he later apologized for doing. It has been five months since he last played in an ATP Final.
“I’m nothing compared to the player I was before,” the 26-year-old told reporters on Tuesday. “I remember myself playing when I was younger, playing with adrenaline on the court, feeling like my life depends on the match. And these things, I feel like they have faded off, and let’s say my level of consistency hasn’t been as big.
“I remember my concentration used to be at its highest, at its peak, back then, and that’s something that I felt has dropped a little bit. I know it sounds strange, but I feel like I need the hunger to reproduce the hunger I had back then. And I’m not a person that feels alright or settles for normal stuff. Like, I really want to regenerate it and bring it back because it brought a lot of joy to my tennis when I was able to feel that way on the court. I really don’t know why it has dropped the last couple of months. I would even consider it like one to two years I’ve been feeling that way. I guess I was just able to hide it a bit better and put it to the side a bit more.”
Elaborating further about his form in recent months, Tsitsipas believes he has been suffering from a form of burnout. A feeling he has had since the start of this season.
“I’m not an expert, I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but I’ve had these discussions before with some of the people that I’ve spoken to and I do feel like there is some sort of like a long-term burnout,” he explained.
“I’ve already been feeling it since the beginning of the year. I feel like it’s a top of burnout that, regardless if you stop or not, it has happened already and it’s not going to repair or regenerate itself just purely because of vacation or staying away from the courts. I feel like it’s something that has actually kept going, regardless of whether I’m out of tennis or not.”
Tsitsipas has been a prominent fixture in men’s tennis in recent years, reaching two grand Slam finals at the 2021 French Open and 2023 Australian Open. Overall, he has won 11 ATP trophies, including the 2019 ATP Finals and three Masters 1000 events. He has been ranked as high as third in the world.
Yet to appoint a new long-term coach to his team, Tsitsipas plans to keep going with the hope he can redescover the spark in his game as soon as possible.
“What I’m struggling with right now is getting into that rhythm of wins and consistent good runs in Masters 1000s and big tournaments, those moments I had two or three years ago. I remember feeling great, being able to reproduce that week after week. Right now I’m way too far from even doing that. I just need to find ways that can help me get back to the wins first.” He concluded.
This year is the first time since 2018 that Tsitsipas has failed to reach the semi-final stage of at least one major event.
