“I still want to be the best in the world” – Tsitsipas optimistic despite Roland-Garros upset
Stefonas Tsitsipas opens up about injuries, mental struggles and racquet changes after losing to world No 167 in French Open second round
© Julien Nouet / Tennis Majors
Stefanos Tsitsipas crashed out of the 2025 Roland-Garros Wednesday. The No 20 seed suffered an upset at the hands of world No 167 Matteo Gigante in the second round, losing 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
Tsitsipas has certainly seen better days at the Paris Major as the loss marked his earliest exit from the tournament since 2018 (second round then as well). Also, once ranked as high as world No 3, he finds himself in the 20s (ranking) for the first time after August 2018.
All this, however, hasn’t dented the Greek’s self-belief : “I still want to be the best player in the world,” the two-time runner-up in Paris told reporters after the match.
“I still want to do great things around this sport that I chose to play. My attention and focus is always to try and improve any aspect of my game. I’m an optimistic person. I don’t want to use any excuses or anything like that, so my entire focus is on how can we come to solutions, solve certain things.”
He hopes to put his experience to good use henceforth and better his situation in world tennis.
“It’s a constant puzzle. I’m ambitious, and I want to prove it on the tennis court. Things have definitely changed over the last couple of years, and I know that I find myself in a completely different position now. I just need to use my experience a little bit more wisely, I would say. My experience sometimes kind of stabs me I feel like, instead of utilising it in a more professional and profound way.”
One thing I have dealt the last couple of years were the injuries that popped up. Psychologically, they did a lot of harm.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Further, Tsitsipas attributed his slump to the persistant injuries that have disturbed him mentally in the last couple of years.
“One thing I have dealt the last couple of years that I wasn’t so much facing before were the injuries that popped up. Psychologically, they did a lot of harm to me,” the world No 20 said.
“There are a lot of different, how can I say, things that kind of came up after those injuries which made me feel a little discomforts, made me lose a little bit of hope in terms of how my body can respond to certain situations and the demands of the tour that are constant.
“The pressure that my body has gone through in order to sustain those matches and long fights, I feel like I have been fresher for sure in the past, and I’m just trying to find that balance again of how can I go match after match feeling the freshest that I can.”
Earlier this year, a lower-back injury force Tsitsipas to quit the Barcelona Open quarter-final.
Back to Wilson Blade 98
In February, Tsitsipas briefly changed his racquet from the Wilson Blade 98 to a blacked out tool which resembled Babolat’s Pure Aero 98.
The switch did help the Greek bring the Dubai Tennis Championships silverware home but he couldn’t get going with it since the onset of clay swing, thus, he brought the Blade 98 back in Rome.
“It’s mainly trying to go back to what feels comfortable to me and what I know best,” Tsitsipas explained. “I had a few disappointing results on the previous clay court tournaments with it, and I felt like perhaps I didn’t deserve to lose matches in that particular way that I did. I felt like I kind of gave away the match. Unforced errors were kind of out of control in those two, three matches that I had.
“I might have actually played good matches with it on clay and might have gained on some things that I wasn’t able to gain before, but I didn’t have a great feeling with it, so I chose to go back to something that feels comfortable and I know best, something that works and has served me pretty well on clay the last couple of years.”
