WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 26, 2020

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/R. Opelka

5-6 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Tell me, please, if it's more difficult to return the serve of John Isner or the one of Opelka? Because last night Berrettini was unable to return almost all the time. He made nine points on Opelka's serve on the whole match. And you did nine points today against him when he was serving. Who is serving better, Opelka or Isner?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: That's unbelievable question, to be honest with you. It is like you tell me, white bread or black bread. It's like -- I don't know. It's a personal choice, I guess.

When I first played Isner at Wimbledon few years ago, to me back then it seemed incredible. It's really difficult. Like compared to today and yesterday, I would say Opelka's serve was more difficult to return. But they are pretty close. They are pretty close.

I think Opelka's second serve is more aggressive and jumps really high. I think it's difficult, especially when you play against him in a court with a high response, it is difficult to return.

I got very close to break him towards the end and had opportunities where it was 30-All and everything, but he served unbelievably well there and didn't give me much of an option.

I would go for Opelka. I would go for Opelka.

Q. Opelka's only 22 years old. Isner is 34. Isner became very, very good, in the top 10 ten years after being 22 years old. So do you expect, Opelka being so young, he will make such a progress that he will become a top 10 very soon or not?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: He has potential, for sure, with such serve. And I think also staying injury-free and healthy will play, for sure, an important role in his career.

He has a really good, solid baseline game, I would say, if he doesn't rush, which makes him difficult to play.

Q. You said last year that you wanted to learn Spanish. How is your Spanish and if you dare to try it in the press conference?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: In the press conference, not yet. I asked for the biggest tournament in Spain, Mutua Madrid Open, to hire a tutor for me who will be traveling with me around the world. Like this, I will be able to learn every day. But they haven't really done much so far. And I wasn't joking, by the way. I was serious.

I love Spanish, the Spanish language, a lot. Even though I don't speak it, I'm really great with accents, and I can understand -- I'm really fascinated when it comes to accents, and I can understand people's origin from Spanish, and I can understand where they come from. And I'm not even a Spanish speaker, which I guess it's a hidden talent.

But Spanish and Greek share a lot of commonalities and similarities. Why not? I would love to.

Q. I don't know how much you have watched Roberto playing this week. I know you have played him once last year in a big match. I'm just curious what you think makes him such a difficult player to play? Even though you're not playing him next. Just in general.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Roberto Bautista Agut?

Q. Correct.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: He's probably one of my best friends on tour. We don't really speak much, but whenever he's around, we always have a good time, with him and his coach. He's a really close friend of mine, really nice guy.

I think on the court he's one of the biggest fighters and one of the most consistent and calm at the same time players, persistent players on the tour, which is very rare to see such a calm, well-conserved, and just doing his job quietly player on tour.

He has a lot to offer, although he has, I guess, a specific type of game which he follows very, very precise.

So, yeah, he can play really well. If he's on a good day, it's really difficult to play against him. I had a really difficult match against him at the Australian Open, one of the most difficult matches of the year, and I had to go through a lot to get this win. He puts in a lot of consistency and persistence. Just doesn't let it go.

Q. A little while ago I believe you were talking about the very, very difficult times in Greece, in your homeland, when people were really struggling. You spoke about your siblings. And you also said that essentially people saw you as part of the problem. Then you spoke with your mental coach and he gave you inspiring words. Could you just reflect on that pretty interesting situation? What was happening there?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I started with pretty much nothing, no structure. My mom used to be a professional tennis player, No. 1 juniors, ITF, but 100 WTA. She knew kind of what it takes to be able to make it professionally.

My dad was, on the other side, he was a coach. So my family wasn't very rich. Middle class, I would say.

There came a time where I turned 12, 13, and I had to travel and I wanted to pursue this dream of traveling around the world and become potentially a professional tennis player one day.

That's when the Greek crisis hit. That was exactly the period. So that made it so difficult for me. My dad quit his job, quit everything, started traveling with me, no income. The family, thank God we had a relative in our family that helped support us financially, and aunt. I don't know. Without her, it would totally be impossible to follow this dream.

For me, you know, traveling to countries which had a lot of conflict with Greece at the time, I was being seen as a black sheep. I felt very uncomfortable. Just generally not -- I felt like I was a minority. You know, you feel like tiny, small. You see other people just humongous, big in front of you. That's what I felt, mostly because of my country's problem.

Yeah, I was seen as part of the problem, but it was also my fault, my dad's fault, everyone's fault, everyone was lazy, everyone was not working, everyone was not doing anything productive.

Yeah, it made me -- it made me, I guess, become tougher, because I wanted to prove to everyone that it's not how it is. It sort of acted as a lesson for me, and I had to go through a lot of difficulties, sometimes not being able to pay my hotel bills with my father, my father's credit card at the time.

I don't want to go into details, but it was very difficult for us traveling and basically trying to make it. That's the story. I mean, we were traveling most of the time. I was gone. I was not in Greece, but I experienced some of it when I was back to come see my family and spend time with my cousins and my family in general.

So I saw the situation, and it was very depressing and people were desperate for something. I wanted to be able to provide something to my community, to my country, to my nation by playing good tennis.

I remember being young and having this big dream of one day I want to be heard and have a voice and be a good representative and a good ambassador of my country to promote Greece and show my country's qualities as a nation.

Q. What did your mental coach tell you?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: My mental coach was my biggest support at the time. He was back there, and obviously would speak through Skype calls or FaceTime or anything that, yeah, video conference pretty often, and he would just encourage me.

He would always push me to bring the best out of me and see the situation as mature and with no stress and just trying to focus on what I was trying to do. He offered a lot and brought a lot to my game.

I can still feel his calming voice, and I'm still working with him, of course, but the way he brought things into perspective, he just encouraged me. He told me, have no fears in this world. You have the ones that survive are the ones that are fearless and the ones that really go for it.