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NEXT GEN ATP FINALS

November 10, 2018

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Fiera Milano, Italy

S. TSITSIPAS/A. De Minaur

2-4, 4-1, 4-3, 4-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. From alternate to No. 15 in the world and champion here. What have you learned about yourself on this journey?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: What have I what?

Q. What have you learned about yourself?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Learned. Yeah, I've learned a lot.

I've learned that I'm a fighter. That I have a big heart. Especially in tough moments like today, I kept my -- let's say my attitude was right. You know, I didn't crack under pressure despite losing those two match points that I had on his serve. I stayed in the match. I fought. And, yeah, I won the tie-breaks in the three.

So one thing that I learned this week is that, yeah, I am a big fighter. I can play really good under pressure, play my best game under pressure, and it's a great week.

Been serving amazing. Hopefully I can serve like this next year in every single tournament. Really high serve percentages. And, I mean, really mature the way I treated my breakpoints, let's say, on my serve. I think I lost two or three of them on deciding points. So, yeah, I'm very experienced on that.

And, yeah, I have a great -- I think I have a great game under pressure, and I can be very aggressive and very scary sometimes with the tennis I play. I can just take the ball so early and make my opponents confused and make them, you know, make a step back, which is rare, I guess.

Q. Which is your final opinion about this tournament about the rules, the atmosphere?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I mean, I won the tournament, so what do you expect me to say? I hate it? (Laughing.)

I won the tournament with these rules. To be honest with you, I'm confused myself. I don't really know what I liked and what I didn't like.

Again, the games are very stressful. Obviously there's no advantage so you need to be twice more concentrated.

But, I mean, I love those rules because I won. That's the only thing I can say. I love those rules. I think for big servers it's a good thing.

Yeah, it gives you more opportunities to break, to fight back. Games are shorter, but still if you manage to hold at 40-All when your opponent is serving, there's a big chance of you breaking.

No-let rule, I mean, yeah, we didn't have problems with it this week.

The headset, I'm not a big fan of it, but, yeah, you could see from the reaction yesterday (smiling).

Yeah. What else? Live Hawk-Eye was exciting this week. Was very, very good. No mistakes. Very accurate. Very responsive. Yeah, just much better than the human eye. So I love the live Hawk-Eye. Hopefully it can be put in more events in the future and be the, let's say, the thing that's going to be, yeah, the innovation of the game.

Q. You've had a lot of big wins this year but does this tournament -- you were the favorite here. Five matches, five days, does it kind of give you a different sort of confidence going into next year or similar?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: There is a long time -- yeah, there's a long time before my first match starts next year, so it gives me confidence right now if I could continue playing the year.

But I don't know. It's a different game, you know. As I said, it's not playing -- it's not sets, let's say, best of six or -- yeah, best-of-three sets, six games. It's a different -- it's a new scoring system.

So obviously winning this title means a lot to me and for sure gives me some confidence playing those guys, the Next Gen guys, in the future, but it's not everything. It's not going to make me, let's say, if I could say more complete player, because I'm not going to play with those rules next year. So it's just a temporary thing. I have bigger targets, bigger goals to focus on for next year.

I'll have to focus on keeping my first-serve percentages high, not getting broken, and managing trying to break as much as I can my opponent's serve. Obviously the sets will be longer, but for sure it gives me a little bit of confidence and knowing that, let's say, I was the best Next Gen player this week.

Q. What are you looking forward to the most in the offseason?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: My vacation in Cyprus. (Smiling.) Laying on the beach, thinking about nothing. Forget social media, forget my phone. Throw it in the trash can. Just me, myself, and I.

Q. Your dad said this is another step on your journey, all these big achievements you've had, these are just steps along the way. What do you think the next step is for you?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: The next step is doing good and playing well in Grand Slams, I mean, where all the points are. Big events. Doing well in most of the tournaments that I'm going to play next year. I'm going to be seeded, I guess, in most of them, so I'm going to have to treat it right and take advantage of my ranking, take advantage of my situation.

My focus will be on Masters and Grand Slams. I'm going to try to pull out my best game there. Obviously it's going to be tough. Other players want the same thing.

But, again, I want to have a good preseason this year. Load myself with fitness, with lots of mental sessions with my mental coach, which I believe helps me a lot.

Refresh and come to enter into 2019 stronger and better, just a better Stefanos than 2018.

Q. Where is going to be the party tonight?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I have no idea. (Smiling). My friends planned something, but I'll just follow them and see where it might end up.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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