Stefanos Tsitsipas reveals his favorite surface he loves to play on and it’s not clay
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Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas was ecstatic to win the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 2022 for the second time being the defending champion this year. What made it “double” special was the lengths to which he had to go to reclaim the prize in the principality. With a difficult path on the way to the title, Stef grinds out tough wins to not let go of the trophy.
Tsitsipas beat Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals after falling behind 0-4 in the third set. He squandered a chance to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set in the final. Rather than panicking, the two-time Monte Carlo winner immediately bounced back to win the subsequent tie-break. He then defeated Alexander Zverev rather convincingly in the semi-finals before defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the finals, again in straight sets.
With his victory, Tsitsipas won 1,000 ATP Rankings points, putting him in second place in the ATP Race To Turin on Monday as he bids to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fourth year in a row. The 23-year-old, on the other hand, has set his goals even higher.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and his new journey ahead
On top of his Monte Carlo victory, the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals winner has had a solid start to his season, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the final of the Rotterdam. He intends to maintain his performance in the Principality throughout the year.
When asked to comment on this the 23-year-old Greek said, “I’m always trying to bring the best I can from clay and adjust accordingly to the other surfaces. I really want to be doing well on hard and grass this year, because I feel like I can really get a lot of points there,” Tsitsipas said. “If I’m able to win matches with the same consistency I do on this surface, I think I have a big chance of finishing the year [in] the top two, which is a huge goal of mine to be finally there and belong in that special group of players.”
He further adds, “I have a surface that I might be adjusting easier to than other surfaces and we know which one that is,” “My goal ever since I have realized that… is if I’m able to score points [on] this surface as much as I can and really concentrate on the other surfaces a bit more, I can really pull off a great year, maybe even finishing among the two best tennis players at the end of the season.” said the current world no. 5 on his performance on clay.
Only five active players have ever reached World No. 2: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Daniil Medvedev. Tsitsipas has risen to World No. 3 during his career.
“My tennis is great I think everywhere, with clay maybe being the surface that I can adjust [to] the best. I have had moments where I was trying to apply what I apply on clay hard. Doesn’t really seem to be working much. Sometimes it’s not really the way to go,” Tsitsipas said. “But this has also [taught] me a lot that I should adjust and I should never really become obsessive that, ‘Okay, whatever works on clay should work on faster surfaces’,” Tsitsipas was heard commenting
Tsitsipas will not be looking too far ahead for the time being. This week, the Greek is back in action in the Barcelona Open having been the runner-up last season. The top seed is a two-time ATP 500 finalist, and he’ll be looking to win his third title here. Looks like the Greek will stun us with his performance on the grass and in the upcoming grass-court tournaments and in Wimbledon likewise too.
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Harini Mahesh
(159 Articles Published)