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CITI OPEN

August 3, 2019

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Washington D.C.

N. KYRGIOS/S. Tsitsipas

6-4, 3-6, 7-6

Q. Not the way you wanted it to turn out, but a great effort. Mark has tapped this as the Citi Open reimagined. Could you have imagined what went on tonight ever in a match?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: What happened tonight? (Laughter). What's so special about tonight?

Q. I mean, the drama, the roller coaster ride of a match that this turned out to be.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I was thinking about it during the match that people loved the competition that both of us brought into the court. So I believe it's very good for the tournament to have matches like this.

Nick in my opinion is underrated, and yeah, I guess the rivalry between me and him looks bright, and I'm pretty sure we're going to face each other plenty of times in the future.

Q. I'm curious how closely you look at stats after matches that you win, that you lose, and in particular if you looked at the stats tonight before coming in.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's an unbelievable coincidence that you ask me this because that's the only time that I looked at my stats, after a loss. It happened that it was on TV and I just checked it real quick to see, from what I remember, I had not that many unforced errors. I think double less than him. Winners were pretty close to one another. He had maybe a little bit more than me, but not far.

Yeah, I think it was a one-point difference, as I remember, wasn't it? I'm talking about the total points won, 91-90.

Q. No, they had it wrong on TV.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Okay, sorry.

Q. That's partly why I was asking, it was identical on service points --
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Yeah, I guess most of his service games were won by love? Yeah? So that's why he gets more points on that.

Q. You each won 48 out of 58 points on first serve, both of you, and you both won 16 out of 33 points on second serve, so it was identical stats, which is unusual. First time playing against Nick; what did you think of his game, first time feeling it yourself?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I wasn't far wrong what I thought of him before playing him. His serve was just unreal in the first set. I couldn't do anything. He just gets inside the ball. I don't know, he just -- it's like he's serving inside the service box when he serves. You always have to guess. I haven't seen anything like it. Probably him and Isner. I've faced Isner, and Isner has one of the most difficult serves to return in the game.

I'm pretty sure if I had the opportunity to return a little bit more, probably get him into the rally, things would be different, but I didn't do so. He served two unbelievable serves. I don't really remember which -- was it 6-All? Yeah, I think it was -- I came back from 5-1 and he was just ripping the hell out of the ball. I don't know.

Q. It looked like to us that you guys both kind of raised your level tonight. You've been playing well all week, of course, but just to take it to the next level, what about playing each other brings out your best tennis or better tennis or this kind of level of competition do you think?
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's tough to say. I mean, he had his ups and downs during the match. It felt like sometimes he didn't care at all. Then I don't know, it's probably part of his plan or tactic when he plays to get you out of focus. Everyone has his own way.

But I was sure that he's not going to -- I mean, he's not going to do it all. When the third set starts, he did it in the second set towards the end of it. Yeah, got frustrated, had a couple of called violations, time violations. I really don't know if he does it on purpose, but the level of tennis was good. He was playing well. He was on fire at some moments during the match. I got a bit, I would say, unlucky in the tiebreak. I got broken twice in the beginning. He kept holding his serve and putting pressure on me.

Q. I just wanted to ask about the latest shoe episode and what it felt like when he's delivering that box to you kneeling down, the whole situation with your dad.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Today?

Q. Yeah, and when Nick did his thing right in the box, though.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: That was funny. I mean, I think from my reaction was the way I should have reacted. Sometimes you cannot really take anything serious. You have to just go with the flow. If you take those things too serious, like some other players have did in the past, there's nothing good out of it, so you just have to be the same childish and the same fun as he is.

Q. When we were talking to Nick last night, he said, I think Ben asked him what he's learned about you from playing with you this week and everything. One of the things that he said struck me because it was true; he said you guys are cut from completely different cloth, and I feel like in that moment sort of when he's joking around and clowning, yeah, I would -- is it tough for you, because you tend to be very focused and very intense, and so on some level I could imagine that what he's doing could be distracting.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: The thing is that you expect those things before the match starts. It's not something new when you see those things on court. So it's his way of feeling comfortable when he's on the court. Yeah, he's entertaining people. Some people love him, some people hate him. I believe we need people like him in the game, otherwise everything becomes too serious. Yeah, he's fun. I'm serious, as well, when I play. I try to get the best out of my game by being focused and having a game face. But yeah, he has said some good things about me, and I appreciate that.

Q. I wanted to ask you what's with your leg; is everything fine now? What do you think? Did you have some kind of injury today, or how do you feel, like US Open is really soon.
STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I got injured yesterday. I felt my muscle pulled a little bit after -- I was in the middle of the match against Benoit Paire. I stretched a couple of times from the forehand side and felt tension in my hamstrings. I did it once. It was quite painful. Then the second time it got even worse. So this morning I was actually -- I was struggling to walk, to go have lunch. It was quite painful. So I had some treatment before the match starts. I've never had this before, but it was kind of bothering me during the match, but I don't -- I mean, I shouldn't be -- I just had trouble running around the court today because of that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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