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FEVER-TREE CHAMPIONSHIP

June 17, 2019

Stefanos Tsitsipas

London, England

(From audio.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. First time at Queen's, I think. What do you make of the surroundings here?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Nice place to play tennis. Grass court is really nice, one of the best. I like the facilities. I like how organized everything is.

One thing that I have been really struggling with lately is all the doors in this facility (smiling). Seems like way too many doors.

It's like a labyrinth, right? I'm a young guy. I get used to that, I guess.

Q. Tell us a little bit of your relationship with grass, whether you like it and what happens to your body when you're back from clay onto grass. What happens then?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Different -- I mean, not much, but the difference between clay and grass, you have to stay lower. You have to have a fast anticipation and not necessarily play extreme tennis.

You have to play clean. You have to come to the net. You have to concentrate on other things when you play 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.

And my relationship with grass is really -- I have great memories from grass. I won Wimbledon doubles here in juniors. Very close to win Wimbledon singles. I lost in the semis.

Qualified two years ago and made fourth round last year. So my relationship with grass is pretty good (smiling).

Q. Welcome back to London. You've had a good start to the year. You have done well in Australia. What's your mood for London now?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: My mood for London is I really want to do well. I want to do much better than fourth round from last year, so I know it's going to take something more, something more difficult and to overcome people. Players know me. Players know what to expect.

So I really hope I do well and leave from grass court season with great memories and great moments from that surface.

Q. You're playing Kyle Edmund first up. He was just saying he thinks perhaps the pressure match might be more on yourself than on him, given your performances recently. Do you feel that? Do you feel the weight of expectation, like being the hunted rather than the hunter?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I haven't really showed yet anything on grass, in my opinion. I mean, I have never played Kyle, but I had pretty good results on clay before grass. Decent results -- I mean, semis Australian Open on hard, finals in Dubai, and a win in Marseilles. On those two surfaces, I have been doing pretty well this year.

It can always be tricky when there's so many different surfaces that you have to adjust and adapt to throughout the year. So I only had one match last week. I haven't really felt everything that I have to feel here on grass, so I'd say it's going to take quite a while to adjust to those new conditions which I haven't played for a year now. I think we're pretty equal. I mean, he hasn't played a match, as well.

I think it's going to all be a matter of right decisions and concentration levels, because everything is happening very fast on grass.

Q. Is this your first time at a 500 as a top seed?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I'm not sure. 500 as a top seed? I think it's the first time, yeah.

Q. Just wondering how being top seed, is that, like, a big deal to you?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I don't even watch the draws, to be honest. I don't know who is on my part of the draw. I don't know who is No. 2. I mean, if you ask me who is No. 2, I have no clue.

So I just play. I just have to -- I have to play. I don't have to think I'm No. 1 or No. 2. But probably 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 favorite, I'm the one who everybody expects me to win, then you become kind of lazy. You expect everything to become easier to you just because you're No. 1, No. 2, or 3 or 4.

You have to play the way -- I have to play the way I have been playing all this time without thinking of those small details.

Q. Just looking at the kind of wider grass season, it's been 16 years since someone who wasn't Roger, Rafa, Novak, or Andy won Wimbledon. Andy's said this week he thinks only Roger, Rafa, or Novak can win Wimbledon. Do you agree with that assessment, or do you feel you're one of the guys who could potentially upset the apple cart this time?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I want, to be honest, I would love to see something different this year. Hopefully it can be me. But I think it's good for the sport to have a little bit of variety, a little bit of -- yeah, something different.

I mean, it's boring to see these guys win all the time. We are responsible, as the new generation, to work hard and believe in ourselves if we can come up with something new, come up with our best games to beat those guys.

I think it's all a matter of character and feeling responsible of what we are doing out on the court. Some people don't feel responsible. They don't want to take that big responsibility of going out and winning and saying, you know, I'm going to overcome all those difficulties, I'm going to beat those guys, I feel like I can beat them, my game will be at its finest. If some of our NextGen players believe that, if the younger generations think positively, I think we can achieve a lot of things. I hope at Wimbledon this will happen.

Q. When you go to a tournament, you're somebody who very much likes to see more than just a hotel, the match courts, practice courts. I wonder, in your time in London, do you have any particular things you want to do, that you want to go and see?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I have seen everything in London couple of times. I would love to see myself playing on the O2 Arena in November, but that's not now. That's something I want to see in London (smiling). Yeah.

Q. On the wider picture again, you and Zverev seem to have developed a really good, competitive edge. Could you tell us a bit about your relationship with him maybe on or off the court? It looks like the next big rivalry in the game.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: You think so? I mean, let's not forget -- I mean, it's not just him. He's doing unbelievably well. He has been top 3 for such a long time now, which is very difficult to maintain.

Let's focus also on other guys. He's doing unbelievably well, like I said, but there are also guys like Felix, who I believe he has big potential and can play really well. Denis, Alex, Taylor, all those guys, Frances.

I think not just with Zverev but also with these guys, we're gonna have a big, big rivalry in the future, and, yeah, our relationship with Sascha is all right. I don't see him that often. When I see him, it's pretty okay, decent.

We both know that we're gonna face each other many times in the future. We both know that someone is going to win more, someone is going to win less, but that's what makes our sport a sport that we chose to play, this competitive attitude, this daily competition to prove each other that we're better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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