Stefanos Tsitsipas: 'On court I am feary, serious, selfish'
In a press conference in the French Open Stefanos Tsitsipas was asked how he would describe himself when he competes on a tennis court. The 20-year-old replied: "Very feary, concentrated. I'm not smiling, so I'm very serious when I play. That's how I feel (smiling). To me it's a serious job. Tennis is something that I make a living off, so I take it very seriously. I try to be very selfish in what I'm doing and not be too emotional or hurt someone's feelings when I'm playing. I think I have to be tough to get the maximum out of it. So that's the main reason I'm so serious and focused and always have that game face (smiling). But if I would describe myself, probably -- I don't know. Optimistic? Creative?"
On what he told himself after losing the third set against Filip Krajinovic, Tsitsipas added: "Stay in the moment and play the way you played before, because -- yeah, at 5-All, I won two games in a row, broke him. I think it was better for him that we stopped that moment so, as you saw, he went in, and, to me it seemed like he knew more of what he was doing. What do I say to myself? "Fight hard. The start of the match was horrible. Never in my probably entire ATP WorldTour career till now never had such a bad start in a match. I felt like I was drowning on my own. I almost got broken twice in the first set. Survived that second break. Somehow won the first set. I don't know, it was like a miracle to me, because he seemed to have total control of everything. And then I got my mind straight. I don't know. I was just kind of staying -- although I was a break down, I was kind of balancing things out somehow. Yeah, in the beginning, I don't know if you heard the noise that was coming -- was it from Suzanne Lenglen? I'm not sure. Court 1 probably. People were booing someone. That was kind of frustrating to me when I was playing. This booing wouldn't stop. And during the point and everything. But I shouldn't think of it too much, in my opinion. But to me that moment, yeah, everything was going in reverse (smiling). Yeah."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/310OY2o
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