Stefanos Tsitsipas has admitted that he is enjoying tennis again ahead of his clash with defending champion Casper Ruud.
The Greek reached the fourth round in Madrid after a 6-4 6-2 victory over Daniel Merida as he has won three matches so far.
This will be a relief for Tsitsipas who hasn’t been in the best form recently and having been a former top five player, is now ranked as low as 80 in the world.
However, after defeating Alexander Bublik in the previous round Tsitsipas had admitted he is starting to enjoy his tennis again, “When you are playing matches like that, where you are fighting and in a good mindset and constantly looking and searching for opportunities, you feel like the joy of the game on its own allows you to feel fulfilled already when you’re on the court,” Tsitsipas told the ATP website.
“These types of moments, [regardless] of the actual result, I feel like they teach me a lot. They make me get in touch with the game. I really love the game when I get to discover tennis in such ways. Just hitting winners, missing a few times, but overall trying to take the most out of it.
“Seeing good rotation of my ball and seeing I can actually press and create some big shots, these are the types of moments that make me really enjoy the game.”
Tsitsipas will hope that remains the case when he takes on defending champion Casper Ruud for a place in the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals.
It’s Ruud who leads the head-to-head 3-2 and won their previous meeting in the 2024 Barcelona final.
