Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas says that he was lacking motivation following his shock first round loss at the Wimbledon Championships.
The French Open finalist fell in straight sets to Frances Tiafoe in what is the third time in his career he has lost in the opening round of the tournament. Tsitsipas found no way to tame his inspired American opponent who had already won a Challenger title on grass and reached the quarter-finals of Queen’s leading up to the Grand Slam. One particular area of disappointment was his second serves where he could only win 42% of the points.
Tsitsipas later praised his rival but admits there was various factors which hindered his performance at the grass-court major. One of which was his lack of play on the surface. Due to the short turnaround between the French Open and Wimbledon, he took a brief break before returning to training in recent days.
“A lack of matches was crucial today. I kind of started feeling my game a bit better towards the end of the third set, middle of the third set. I felt my strokes better. I felt like I was able to apply more pressure and feel the court better,” Tsitsipas said afterwards.
“I wasn’t able to maintain the intensity. I wasn’t able to put something better than him. It ended up going his way,” he added.
Speaking frankly and honestly, the 22-year-old insists that he has the ability to play well on the grass and had reached the fourth round of the tournament back in 2018. So what is the problem?
In Tsitsipas’ eyes, he says the hardest thing for him is transitioning between two surfaces in what he describes as one of the biggest challenges of the sport. His career win-loss on the grass now stands at 8-8 (ATP Tour matches only).
“I would like to pinpoint and say that I have all the qualities and the game to play on grass,” he pointed out.
“The transition from clay to grass, in my opinion, is probably the most difficult one, if not the biggest challenge in our sport.”
Besides physical problems, the world No.4 has also shed some light on his current mentality as he admits to suffering from bubble life. At Wimbledon players have to abide by tough COVID-19 restrictions and have to stay at a designated player’s hotel. A procedure that other tournaments have also implemented in recent time.
“The bubble makes it really tiring week by week. It’s certainly very difficult when you know mentally you’re going to go from one bubble (to another).” Tsitsipas explained.
“Just like two weeks later you still have to undergo the same procedure and the same thing again. It’s just not easy.’
“But I don’t want to put too much emphasis on that. We had a match today. I had my opportunities. My opponent played much better, significantly better, than me.”
Despite his loss, Tsitsipas still leads the ATP Tour with most matches won in 2021 at 39.
