ROLAND GARROS

May 29, 2024

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/D. Altmaier

6-3, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congrats. When Daniel played better in the third set and then did a break of serve in the fourth, did you think about what happened to Jannik Sinner last year when he got out of the tournament against the same opponent?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Oh, really? Yes, I forgot about it. (Laughter.) Really? I was not aware of it. It's good I was not aware of it (smiling) now that you reminded me.

Nope, no, I did not know of anything, but I knew that -- well, I think there was a tweet that I did a few days ago regarding a fifth set. It's definitely something you don't want to happen.

It's a complicated situation to see yourself two sets to love up, you're playing great tennis, you're executing a game plan perfectly. Your opponent seems like he's out of control. Suddenly he gets back from a toilet break, he starts playing really good, pumped. Not something that happens that often when you see an opponent being more pumped in the third set being two sets to love down rather than the first two sets that what we got to play was a completely different scenario and the plot shifted.

We started playing man to man with the same intensity and the same frequency, in a way, it felt like. The tiebreaker was really not that pleasant for me. But I have been through situations like this before and they are complicated to deal with.

One thing you don't want to happen is to lose control of your emotions. This is something that can really be a big threat when you start losing control of your emotions and feelings and start to overanalyze the situation, how did that happen, everything seemed under control and now it's not.

But in my case, I knew that I'm getting there. Break of serve on clay, of course it's an advantage but it's not the biggest advantage. I can still fight my way through it. I think what I did there was try to calm myself about the situation and maybe accept what's happening. Acceptance was the thing that helped me get away from that situation and find my way back to the winning spot again.

Q. When you're trying to win big titles, how important is it for you especially not to get stuck in a five-set match in the first round or in the second round?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, these are situations that sometimes they're not under your control. You know, you have an opponent on the other side of the net, and it's not something that you can entirely control on your own.

What I try and do is respond to the different threats and play that comes from the other side of the net and adapt to those, well, situations or tactics that might be a possibility that they are trying to construct against me.

Of course you would want to save energy and save concentration for deeper runs into the tournament where you find yourself in the second week. These are preferably situations that you would want to maybe, if there was five sets, you would want to save it for those occasions.

But I'm happy I got away from that bad situation that I was being faced with later during the match, and had a great comeback, was very patient with myself and dealing with my emotions. I can only be proud of that.

I am happy I didn't go into a fifth-set adventure, as I like to call it, and find myself in maybe situations that suddenly you see a completely different story line of the match.

Q. You mentioned the bathroom break. How hard is that when you have the lead, all the momentum, and you just kind of sat there waiting?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's a different challenge on its own, because one thing that can happen and most likely will happen is you will lose your momentum and you will lose your tempo that you're building towards the match.

I think the greatest gift that you can have, the greatest strength that you can have in that moment is to just deal with it calmly and accept that the opponent wants to try and get away from the court, take time for himself and recalibrate, get back into the court maybe with a different mindset or with a fresher perspective of what's happening out on the court.

I try not to overthink it, because I know that it might hurt me, so in my case, of course I accept and let's call it endure of what's going to happen when the guy comes back from the bathroom break. I'm expecting a much better quality of tennis from his side.

I don't think it interrupted anything today, to be precise and honest. I don't think it had any effect on the game, because we both held serve until 6-All in the third set, so it certainly didn't have any changes during the match.

Q. My question is a nontennis question. There are a lot of couples in tennis today, and obviously you too. I was just wondering whether it's easier to be with someone who is also a tennis player and who can probably understand the pressures, or does it help or not?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I guess there is always -- well, let me put it that way: I feel if there are things I don't quite get as much or feel like I'm as well in touch with regarding my job, I can always reach out to my partner who has spent the same amount of time that I have spent on the court trying to figure out the game, which is a small benefit to my life, I feel like. We both share the same passion and we both do the same thing in life.

So to have a person by your side that you love and can comfortably and mutually and reciprocally talk about tennis in our case, I think it's a breath of fresh air to have a person like that that you can trust. I think in my case that person knows a lot about tennis and analyzes the game pretty well.

Outside of it, we still have times where we completely disconnect from tennis and we focus on our other hobbies that we find interest in. It's a great relationship, because we can combine from both worlds and we can, I feel like, understand each other's lives so much better than any other type of relationship because we know the struggles of it, we know our routines or maybe some of our, how can you say it, when you get into a certain routine, but it's also called...

THE MODERATOR: Rhythm?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Yeah, our own rhythms obviously before and after a match. Superstitions, let's call it. A superstition, yeah. Our superstitions we get better than any other couple relationship, because tennis comes with it. It's natural.

Q. I do have a sports question. When you start a tournament like this, and I thought you were in very good shape, I took you as my favorite to win here, but how far do you analyze the draw? Your draw is not exactly easy. Do you go round by round. Or do you see maybe there's Rublev, maybe Carlos, maybe Jannik, maybe whoever in the finals?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I take it match by match. If you ask me, I don't even know who I'm playing in the next round.

Q. Sonego or Zhang.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Okay. Well, it's something I focus on after my match. I like to focus on my matches independently, individually, and not look who I might have in the quarterfinals or semifinals.

What I have learned through that is that, well, my imagination is big and it's running wild sometimes, free, roaming. I already picture myself playing that player when what I should be doing is focusing on the present and thinking about how I need to beat the current opponent or do my best against the opponent that I'm playing against.

So I want to avoid having my mind being too free and too creative, and just focus on the current day of what I need to get done.

Q. A follow-up on the prior question. I just wanted to ask how much you might talk specifically about tennis strategy for each other with your partner. And on days like yesterday and today, when the schedule is jumbled, there are a lot of delays, matches may be moved, perhaps canceled, we'll see what happens, but how much of an advantage is it to get a chance to play first on a court that has a roof and know that you're through when your day is done?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, me and my partner, we talk a lot about tennis. Our primary goal is to help each other figure certain things out. We have a lot of questions for each other. I feel like we're equally as knowledgeable in our craft and hold a lot of understanding of how certain situations shall be dealt with. That's because of experience that we have accumulated over the years.

We talk about equipment. We talk about things that we can improve. Paula keeps saying all the time, and it annoys me, that she wishes she had my forehand. I tell her I'm sorry, but that's not possible so you have to find ways around it (smiling).

Sometimes I also think, oh, gosh, I wish I had her returns. She destroys the ball on the returns, and it seems so effortless from her side.

You know, we try and learn from these things and obviously share a vision of how we proceed with certain things in our sport.

I feel like it's also a mindset that you build around that, and it's years and years of training and years and years of practicing certain things until they become your natural instinctual thing to do at certain situations and moments.

Regarding the roof, I feel like it's a great big thing that has happened in Roland Garros, that Suzanne Lenglen has put out a roof for this beautiful court that they have, the second-biggest of Roland Garros.

I was thinking about today how nicer or how much more of an advancement it would be if Simonne Mathieu had a roof, as well, and then you have three courts that could be played indoors on a rainy day like this.

I know I'm probably asking for too much, but maybe that could be considered for the future, you know, once Roland Garros becomes even bigger than it is now.

Q. Did you hear that David Goffin story about yesterday?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: No.

Q. He played against a French guy on Court 14 in a five-set match, which he won. The atmosphere was pretty hostile in his eyes, even somebody spit gum in his direction. Afterwards, he said these kind of things happen most of the time here in Paris if he compared to the other three slams. Do you agree with him, that people here, that these kind of things can happen?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Has never happened to me. I've never had to deal with a situation like this in my career.

I really don't know what to say. I didn't watch the match. I'm not aware of what happened. I don't really follow, let's call, tennis news when I'm in competition. But if things like this happen during a match, of course it's confusing in a way of how people behave in a gentleman's sport like tennis. This is definitely not a behavior I would like to see in any of my matches or would even picture happening in any battle that I might have out on the court.

So I'm sorry to hear that.