Stefanos Tsitsipas confirmed his class as he refused to make excuses for his defeat to Thiago Monteiro simply moments after coming off the courtroom. The world No. 7 loved a powerful begin to the clay season, successful the Monte-Carlo Masters, however he fell on the first hurdle of the Madrid Open because the qualifier surprised him 6-4 6-4.
Tsitsipas went 10-1 in matches throughout his first two tournaments on the clay, successful his third Monte Carlo title and reaching the ultimate of the Barcelona Open. Arguably probably the most in-form participant on the floor proper now, he got here to Madrid as one of many favourites.
After receiving a bye into the second spherical, the 25-year-old lasted simply 96 minutes on the courtroom as he was upset by world No. 118 Monteiro. Talking lower than 20 minutes after his loss, Tsitsipas made certain to present all of the credit score to his opponent as a substitute of defending himself.
“I’d similar to to congratulate my opponent. I’ve nothing to say on behalf of me. Nice match from his facet. That is tennis,” he stated within the warmth of defeat. Assessing the match itself, the 11-time title winner piled reward on Monteiro.
Tsitsipas added: “Properly, I had an excellent opponent on the opposite facet of the online. He was arising with nice pictures and punishing me each single time I performed quick. Did not handle to get the depth of the courtroom.
“He was very aggressive, very persistent. His first-serve proportion was fairly excessive, superb first-serve proportion. I simply want I used to be capable of return the best way I did within the final recreation. I felt out of rhythm the complete match on my returns. I felt very disbalanced and simply, like, my physique was going far and wide.”
After a red-hot begin to the clay swing, Tsitsipas will now try to be taught from his shock defeat forward of the Rome Masters and French Open. “It is not an incredible feeling, after all, however I’ve to simply accept it and transfer on,” he defined.
“I did just a few errors. I used to be not maybe 100 per cent prepared for this match, and my opponent was 100 per cent prepared for this match. Due to this fact, he walked away with the victory. He was simply rather more there. His senses have been extra current and he prevailed.”
The world No. 7 additionally believes that he must be careful for his harmful lower-ranked rivals who’re used to enjoying on the Challenger tour. He continued: “What I am taking away from that is I noticed just a few enhancements that I managed to make all through the match. They have been fairly late. They got here fairly late through the match.
“However I feel I try to perceive from these enhancements that I made and reinforce them subsequent time I step out on the courtroom and I am confronted with the identical scenario once more, enjoying a participant who’s hungry to beat me, enjoying a participant who’s actually grinding, has performed just a few Challengers in the previous couple of months, and these are the kind of opponents that for certain try to be extra alert being confronted in opposition to.”