MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 1, 2022

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I guess this is quite a unique clay tournament in terms of conditions, altitude, everything. I'm wondering, how have you adjusted so far? How are you feeling on court?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Nothing specific that I did to adjust here. Just tried, came a bit earlier.

It's different clay court tennis. It doesn't really feel as much, let's say, doesn't feel much of a clay court tournament because you are dealing mostly with altitude than the clay itself.

So that's the ultimate challenge that you have to work on. Swings are different. It's a lot harder to open the court. You know, you're just dealing with higher balls and heavier balls. It's more about trying to make that extra ball in the court deep and with a lot of precision.

Q. Last year you came here to Madrid winning Monte-Carlo like this year. I am going to ask you, do you think that from one year to another you are a better player to make a big thing here in Madrid?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I have better results. I have gained more experience and played more matches. I have seen certain scenarios more than I have when I first came here, and that is what I have in my portfolio. It's up to me to see if I'm able to use that and utilize it in the best possible way.

Q. I haven't seen you since Wimbledon came up with their decision to ban the Russians and Belarusians, and so I wanted to hear your thoughts on that. Is there much discussion among the players about whether the tours should intervene and try to stop it? What are your thoughts?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, it hasn't really been in the players' control of what happened, especially the ones that are from the countries that suffer the most in terms of Wimbledon participation.

It's a sensitive topic to talk about. I think it's not nice that they are not allowed to play, I believe. They have done nothing wrong to be, I'd say, automatically defaulted from that competition.