WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 16, 2023

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/B. Shelton

7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Stef. How happy are you about finishing this in two sets against a very tough opponent?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I held serve well. I was very good in the points that mattered, and although it was two tiebreakers, I managed those moments very well and maturely.

You know, having an opponent like Ben today who can mix up serve well and who can hit some really big serves a lot of miles per hour was definitely something I'm not used to. Talking about the variation of serve and the way he mixes up playing serve-and-volleys, which is uncommon these days. These things made it tricky today.

But I did find a way in the first tiebreaker, which was the most important one of the match, and the second one where I kind of had to replicate what worked in the first one and make as many balls back from his serve, as many balls as possible from his serve and find my ways there.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What do you tell yourself in the tough moments of the match today? I feel like the first-set tiebreaker was very, very key. What did you tell yourself in tough points of the match?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I try to pay attention to the ball. I try to make it look big in my eyes, because the ball in fact is quite small when it comes at such high speeds. Sometimes you are not really concentrating and putting too much into thinking about the ball.

You're reminiscing in the past or in the future. You think too much about the future of how you should play, where you should play, and you end up forgetting that there is a ball coming at you at 130 miles per hour that you need to control and get back.

So I was just wired in. I tried to return as many serves of his as possible to get those rallies going, because we didn't have a lot of them in fact today, which kind of disrupted my rhythm when it came to play.

I did my job there. I stayed well-composed, and I stayed low on the ground. Pushed the ball back and did enough to break his game a little bit in that moment.

Q. How important was it to not just win but to not let that get to three, considering the efforts you had extended?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It could be, in fact. With players like this, they really have nothing to lose when they go on the court, playing on center court, against a guy who has had a few results on the tour over the last few years.

So, you know, a player like him, they are relatively new to the tour. They are just getting started. As far as I know, that was his first year where he really started traveling outside of the U.S.

So he's still, like, spiritually free on the court. Doesn't feel the consequences of whatever he's doing. He has a great kicker. He can hit the ball, smack the ball hard. He's just playing the game careless, just like I did when I first started.

You know, with opponents like this, you've got to be careful, you know. They can smack the ball whenever without you expecting it, and you just have to be there 100%.

Q. Going from Los Cabos to Canada and now to Cincy, just wanted to get your thoughts on the transition from all those different tournaments and how you're holding up physically this part of the season.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: You want me to go through each one of them?

Q. Just talk about transitioning from Los Cabos to Canada and then going all the way here now, getting ready for...

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It was difficult. I mean, that was my decision to go to Los Cabos, but it was difficult to transition, especially the tournament that I had to play after Los Cabos. The time difference made it very difficult for me to adjust in terms of my sleep. I had to play my match quite exhausted.

But this is our tour. This is how things work. I couldn't really acclimatize fast to these new conditions. The ball felt different in Toronto than it did in Los Cabos. Los Cabos, quite frankly, was a much more humid, hot place than Toronto where the ball felt much more lively there.

But, yeah, the transition has been better after Toronto. I'm able to finally go to bed at normal times as opposed to Los Cabos where we would finish at 3:00 a.m. -- a.m., right? Yeah, a.m. Every day for a week, which is quite unusual for a tennis man.

Just to give you an example, I was going pretty late to sleep in Toronto. It took me about five, six days to get used to this new time difference, three hours ahead in Toronto. Going to sleep at 4:00, 5:00 in the morning is not ideal, especially when you're competing at a Masters 1000 (smiling).