Stefanos Tsitsipas: 'Felix was very good, it is tough to play against him'
Playing for the first time as the top-10 player, Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a 6-4, 6-2 loss against an even younger Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in an hour and 17 minutes, falling to 15-6 in 2019. Felix did everything right, dominating in the pivotal moments to save all seven break points and convert three chances he created to cross the finish line and grab the biggest win in a career so far. Tsitsipas was far from his best, hitting more errors than winners and losing the edge in the shortest points to propel Auger-Aliassime into the next round. Felix defeated Stefanos in their three junior matches and the Greek knew it would not be easy today, having a lot of respect for his younger opponent and potentially one of the greatest rivals in the years to come.
"Felix played very well, very fast. It seemed like he was pumped and energized today. I don't know if he's like this every time. I mean, most of the times that I played him he was like this. But it's tough playing him. He has kind of a strange tempo in his game, and you always feel like he's going to hit very hard, but then you don't know what to expect, how hard he's going to hit the ball. So you're always caught out of position. But he played very well, and he deserves every single piece of that victory. I was maybe a bit unlucky because I fell into an opponent that was playing well the past few weeks. He played on clay courts. I played on hard.
The conditions here are very similar to clay courts. The ball is jumping. There's a big bounce, and I don't know. Just it's very similar to clay court game. And physically, I felt like he was very strong, prepared to, you know, for a battle. I never played well against him. I don't know why. We all have, you know, a few opponents that we always struggle with and, I mean, he's one of them. So, I mean, in the future I'm going to have to find solutions to that. I don't want to keep losing to him. But, you know, I'm going to try to work hard for that and be more hungry next time.
One specific moment that I remember very well was that one of the break points when I started the rally and I had maybe not an easy but.. I mean, a normal forehand. I could have finished and opened the court and missed the forehand. I felt like if I had made that one, I mean, few chances maybe the match changing or something, but it didn't happen. So just I don't know. I missed a few shots, and he never made any mistakes on those break points. He waited for me."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2J6rjIZ
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