“Perfection doesn’t really exist”, Stefanos Tsitsipas gives his unique take on staying motivated
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Stefanos Tsitsipas (IMAGO / LaPresse)
Greek tennis professional Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the best players on the tour currently. Tsitsipas recorded the highest number of wins this year on the tour. Though he is yet to add a Grand Slam to his name, he is already on the list of the next-gen players to fill the shoes of the Big 3.
As he prepares for the next season starting with the Australian Open, Tsitsipas talked to Redbull.com and shared his insights about the game, what motivates him and how he tries to stay positive, among other things. Tsitsipas believes criticism is an important factor to improve yourself and “achieve perfection.”
“Criticism is important – I like receiving it,” he told RedBull.com. “When I was younger, I was very sensitive to it, but as I’ve got older I think it’s essential. It’s the only way you can achieve perfection. I mean, perfection doesn’t really exist, but you can get close,” added the Greek.
Talking about his strengths, Tsitsipas said patience is one of his key strengths and elaborated it with the example of the two matches against Rafael Nadal to show how he worked on that in recent years. “There were two times when I found myself in the same situation with the same opponent, but [it was] a different Stefanos each time,” added the World No. 4.
“Two years later, I faced him again at the same tournament, this time in the quarter-finals. After going two sets down, I understood what I was doing wrong,” said Tsitsipas further.
Stefanos Tsitsipas’s 2022 season highlights, controversies
Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded one of the most successful years of his career in 2022. Tsitsipas started with the Australian Open, where he reached the semifinals for the third time and faced Daniil Medvedev in a rematch of the previous year’s semifinal where he eventually, lost to the Russian opponent once again.
After defeating Laslo Đere in the first round at the 2022 Abierto Mexicano Telcel tournament, Tsitsipas recorded his 200th tour-level victory. His first final appearance this year came at the Italian Open after defeating Alexander Zverev in the semifinals. In the final, he was defeated by the Serbian great Novak Djokovic.
This year, Tsitsipas also won his first title on the grass courts at the Mallorca Open, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in three tight sets in the final. At the 2022 Wimbledon Championship, Tsitsipas reached the third round where he met his rival Nick Kyrgios and lost the match in four sets. Hehe reached the Nitto ATP Finals where he lost to Andrey Rublev.
Even after recording the highest number of wins on the tour this year, Tsitsipas was a part of some of the controversies, on and off the court. In the Australian Open, he received a coaching violation when his father Apostolos was caught coaching in Greek. After the tense match against Kyrgios, Tsitsipas was fined $10,000 for two code violations.
In Early December, Tsitsiopas shocked his fans, first by tweeting an anti-feminist message and later by doubling down on the sentiment with a tweet of his own. This created a huge social media backlash against the Greek player.
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