AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2023

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/J. Lehecka

6-3, 7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Well done, Stefanos. Again, undefeated in Australia so far this year. Looking ahead to your fourth semifinal here on Friday against Karen, just say a few words about that matchup.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's a match that I'm looking forward to. It's great to be back in the semifinals. Of course, I'm definitely happy with the way I've been playing so far. I'm looking ahead for more, for better. Looking to create some magical experiences here in Australia.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You've probably been asked this before in the last couple weeks, but I'll ask it again in terms of this tournament. How has it been working between your dad and Mark in terms of input, off days, how they're working together?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: What do you want to know exactly? Like the practice and everything?

Q. Practices, the dynamic, meetings with the three of you...

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: The reason Mark is part of the team is because the dynamic has showed that it's good. There hasn't been any friction. It's been going well. We get along well, all of us. We understand each other. There's never misunderstandings or things that lead to conflict.

I'm enjoying this. I've been enjoying this even in 2022. He makes for a good guy to have next to my father that can advise him, that can help him, can help me. Hopefully I can help him as well through experience, vice versa.

Q. You've been at the business end of the Grand Slams now for quite a few years without going all the way and winning one. From your experiences that you've had, do you feel differently, that this year could be the year?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I'm feeling great with my tennis. I don't think I felt so good in a long time. I will definitely say yes to it.

I've said it, I'm a different player, playing different. My mentality is different. When I'm out on the court, I don't really think of negatives, to be honest. I just go out there and play the game.

Q. There's so much hype about the next gen. You're 24 years old. Does it put a chip on your shoulder, people almost forgetting about you in some ways?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: No, I don't really think about it. Every single opponent has his own background, his own sort of dynamic they put out on the court.

I kind of forgot that Jiri today was a next gen player. Never thought about it. In fact, he is.

I approach every single opponent of mine with the same mindset. I never put labels on them. Each and every match that I get to play against them is a new chapter in my book.

Q. I was more sort of referring in general all the hype about whether it's Holger Rune, Felix, whoever it might be, sometimes forgetting about you guys are quite young yourself.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I passed through this myself. At some point it fades out a little bit 'cause you are an adult. You are not any more a kid. These guys are still sort of in the transition mode. They're still there.

I had my fair share of that. Now I'm looking forward to kind of move forward from there. There's no other 'gen' after that, it's just adulthood.

Q. Is it maturity and experience that are the things that maybe can take you to the next level?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's mindset. It's clearly mindset. Nothing more. I think it's absolutely that.

Q. You've been to this deep part of these Grand Slams before. They're exhausting emotionally and physically, I would imagine. How would you compare your energy level at this point with the French a couple years ago or this tournament last year, any other time you've been this deep?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I feel great. I feel great. I've been playing some good tennis. The thing that I talked about with the mindset, it's also the perspective that you get to see things from.

There is this one sort of way of looking at tennis that you're really exhausted after every match. Every single thing you try to do on the court takes a lot of effort. There's this other version of tennis where you're doing your job, but you're enjoying it so much you don't care if it's exhausting or not. You're refreshed by it every single time.

I think I'm heading towards more of that lately than the other thing. I'm very happy to be out on the court. I'm very happy to be performing. I'm very happy to hit some good shots, come in.

It's just this whole dynamic that has made me very hungry and has created a lot of desire for me to be playing tennis, wanting to achieve new things.

Q. There was an incident right at the end of the match where you hit the ball back into the back wall. Jim Courier was on TV saying he thought you were lucky because it almost hit a ball kid. If you hit a ball kid, you would have been DQ'd. What was your take on the incident?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I saw the ball kid when the ball came back. I'm a professional tennis player. I was not aiming for the ball kid obviously. I saw the wall, just went back towards the wall. The ball kid, in my eyes, was pretty far away from me. Would have really had to miss to hit that ball kid.

Of course, it's not nice even to hit it back towards the wall. I personally don't think I hit it too hard. But doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

What I did, definitely I'm not happy about that. I shouldn't have done it. But it was part of the moment. My ball fell short. There was a little bit of frustration there, but things happen. I just continued and continued playing from that point onwards. I didn't let that affect me because the distance was pretty big and the margin, yeah, really had to do something different there.