'Tsitsipas is like Nadal: he won't be fazed by facing Federer' - Wilander

Stefanos Tsitsipas can cause a major upset on Sunday against Roger Federer, said the seven-time Grand Slam winner Mats Wilander speaking on Eurosport on Saturday previewing the long-awaited fourth-round match. Wilander recognized that defeating the Swiss will not be easy, but heading into the court being calm and upbeat about Federer's aura can help the 20-year-old Greek. "He won’t be fazed by playing against Roger Federer or on Rod Laver Arena in front of a full house at all", said Wilander. "I think he’s pretty relaxed by big moments like that, but it doesn’t mean he’s complacent. He’s super focused. I think we might get the wrong idea about him because of his charisma and on-court attitude but he’s like Nadal: mega, mega, mega focused and he wants it. If you ask me, out of the young guys, if you want someone who can transcend the sport of tennis, this is the guy. He just has to back it up with Grand Slam wins and does he have the game, the level of these guys? I don’t know yet."

Wilander added: "He’s 20 years old, completely unafraid. Federer is a dinosaur in a 20 years olds mind at 37 years old. The only problem with Federer is that he won the Australian Open last year so he’s the defending champion and is arguably the greatest player of all time. But if you set aside the win here last year and ask what else he did– I mean he lost to [Borna] Coric in Halle, [Alexander] Zverev too, so there are a lot of things a young guy can take from that as they don’t have a head-to-head record to be intimidated by. The intimidation on the court is not there, it may be by the aura of the man and the reputation. But does he have a chance tennis-wise? I’m not sure."

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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2RA23yt