“I missed forehands I never miss” – Tsitsipas confused after Monte-Carlo loss to Musetti
Stefanos Tsitsipas was reflective following his three-set defeat to Lorenzo Musetti on what has been a happy hunting ground for him in recent years
Tennis : Rolex Monte Carlo Masters 2025 – Atp – Stéfanos Tsitsipas (Chryslene Caillaud/PSNewz)
Three-time Monte-Carlo champion Stefanos Tsitsipas departed this year’s tournament at the quarter-final stage, beaten 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Lorenzo Musetti, a player over whom he previously had a 100 per cent record.
And when asked in his press conference what went wrong, he had a list of areas of his game that simply had not fired on Friday.
He began by breaking down his serve, describing it as “the thing that kind of was missing, but also, it didn’t help me when I needed it. I was playing with a second serve — the entire second and third set I was playing with just one serve.
“I can’t say that I had moments where I could, like, build the rallies around my serve, placing it well. Maybe the first set I served all right, but still not entirely satisfied with how I served in the first set.
“I might feel like maybe he came in a bit sore and tight and his game wasn’t quite showing in the first set. I knew I was in trouble when I wasn’t able to put first serves in. It made me feel uncertain.”
Tsitsipas: I couldn’t control the ball at all
And Tsitsipas was surprised by his forehand failures as well, saying: “I just feel like I could have done way more today. I missed forehands I never miss. I was actually quite surprised to see those forehands go out or to the net.
“I’m not used to it, especially on clay. Maybe on hard a bit more, but I feel like I can — I’m just used to different angle and a different launch angle from my racquet. I just felt like when situations kind of got tight, just seemed like I couldn’t control the ball at all.”
The Greek had no explanation for his display, either, only managing to say: “I was kind of confused, looking deep down, trying to understand what’s happening, because these things are definitely not normal.”
