Reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas likes to explore the cities he visits during his travels on the ATP Tour. But when a reporter asked him on Sunday ahead of the Fever-Tree Championships at Queens where he would like to visit in London, the World No. 6 did not mention a tourist attraction in fact he has seen everything
“But I would love to see myself playing in The O2 Arena in November,” Tsitsipas said.
The Greek star is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time, and he is off to a good start. Tsitsipas is in fifth place in the ATP Race To London, and he holds a 1,230-point lead over sixth-placed Kei Nishikori. The Top 8 players in the Race qualify for the season finale, to be held at The O2 from 10-17 November.
But for now, Tsitsipas will focus on the present, as he is the top seed at Queen’s Club. and he must focus on not being too confident.
Tsitsipas has fond memories of this surface from his junior career, when he made the boys’ singles semi-finals at Wimbledon and won the boys’ doubles title. As a professional, he reached the fourth round at the grass-court Grand Slam last year.
That leaves him confident that he is capable of performing well during this swing. However, he knows it will take an adjustment from how he played on clay, where he made the final in Madrid, semi-final in Rome and captured the trophy in Estoril.
“There’re a lot of differences between clay and grass. You have to stay lower, you have to have faster anticipation and not necessarily play extreme tennis. You have to play clean, you have to come to the net,” Tsitsipas said. “Instead of trying to spin the ball a lot, or trying to open the court, that doesn’t really work on grass. You have to stay low, come to the net, serve well.”
This is the first time that Tsitsipas has been the top seed at an ATP 500 tournament. It’s been a rapid ascent for the 20-year-old, who began the 2018 season at No. 91 in the ATP Rankings.
“I don’t even watch the draws to be honest. I don’t know who is in my part of the draw. I don’t know who is No. 2,” Tsitsipas said. “I just play. I have to play. I don’t have to think if I’m No. 1 or No. 2. That probably means some players would think about it when they play against you, but if you think of it too much when you play like, ‘I’m the No. 1, I’m the one who is the favourite. I’m the one who everybody expects me to win,’ then you become kind of lazy. You expect everything to come easier to you just because you’re No. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4. I have to play the way I’ve been playing all this time, without thinking of all those small details.”
Younger players must take responsibility and break the hegemony at Wimbledon to ensure there is a new champion this year, Greek world number six Stefanos Tsitsipas has said.
Since 2003, one of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray have won the title at Wimbledon, with the Swiss leading the way with eight titles.
Former champion Boris Becker had slated the younger generation’s inability to challenge the ‘Big Three’ of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic — who have won every major over the last 2-1/2 years — and Tsitsipas hoped to be the one to accomplish the feat at Wimbledon.
“I would love to see something different this year. Hopefully it will be me,” Tsitsipas, 20, told reporters. “It would give it a little bit of variety, something different to these guys.
“We are responsible as the new generation to work hard to come up with something new and our best games to beat them. Some don’t want to take the responsibility of going out and overcoming all those difficulties and beat those guys.”
Tsitsipas has already beaten Federer and Nadal at the Australian Open and Madrid Open respectively this year but he said it was not up to just him or 22-year-old world number five Alexander Zverev to carry the torch for the younger players.
