“I have never seen someone play such a good fifth set,” Stefanos Tsitsipas reacts after ‘bitter’ loss to Carlos Alcaraz at US Open 2021
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Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a disappointing end to his US Open 2021 campaign, as he was defeated in five sets by the Spaniard, Carlos Alcaraz. The Greek lost the decisive set tiebreaker, which gave the 18-year-old an unlikely win.
Stefanos Tsitsipas was nowhere close to his best at Flushing Meadows this year, as he struggled in each of his three matches. The Greek dropped two sets against the Briton, Andy Murray and dropped another set against Adrian Mannarino.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, Tsitsipas heaped praise on Carlos Alcaraz and stated that he had never seen a player hit the ball so hard. Moreover, the Greek revealed that he took time to adjust his game to the Spaniard’s style.
“I’ve never seen someone hit the ball so hard. Took time to adjust. Took time to kind of develop my game around his game style,” said Tsitsipas.
He was a completely different player: Stefanos Tsitsipas on the Alcaraz’s performance in the fifth set
Carlos Alcaraz produced a magnificent performance in the decider, despite losing the penultimate set by a score-line of 6-0. Stefanos Tsitsipas was shocked to see this level of performance from the Spaniard, and stated he had never seen someone play a fifth set so well.
“I felt like he played the fifth [set] completely—the way he played the first set basically: careless, going for every single shot. I have never seen someone play such a good fifth set, honestly. I didn’t expect him to raise his level so much, especially after having lost the fourth set this way. He was a completely different player,” he added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas added that Carlos Alcaraz was pretty comfortable hitting winners on his serve, especially in the decider. The third seed had already claimed that the Spaniard was a contender to win several Grandslam titles even before their meeting in the third round of US Open 2021.
“I was returning pretty deep, applying pressure on my returns,” he said. “I don’t know how much harder I need to hit my return in order to apply pressure. But he felt to be dealing with it really well, comfortably, hitting winners after the first return of mine, just being so much in control, which was surprising, especially in the fifth set,” the Greek continued.
Also Read: Carlos Alcaraz reveals that his playing style is similar to this ‘Big Three’ player
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Nirmit Mehta
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