“Found It Hard to Dictate”: Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Honest Admission After Tough Opening Round Victory at ATP Hamburg Open 2021

After terrific performances on the European clay-court season this year, Stefanos Tsitsipas became one of the top contenders from the next-gen players to win a maiden French Open title.

Tsitsipas came nearly close to making that dream a reality as he won the first two sets against Novak Djokovic in the finals at Roland Garros. Two hours later, the Serbian world number defeated Tsitsipas to clinch his 19th major title.

Watch this story: Heart-breaking Losses at Wimbledon Championships 2021: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Nick Kyrgios, Venus Williams, Ons Jabeur, Andy Murray

All in all, Tsitsipas entered Wimbledon with loads of confidence as he hoped to change his past record at SW19. But, an unfortunate first-round matchup against Frances Tiafoe paved the way for the Greek to bow out of the Championships quickly.

Having quickly recovered from the Wimbledon debacle, Tsitsipas was back to competitive tennis as he chose to play both singles and doubles events at ATP Hamburg Open.

The Tsitsipas brothers(Petros & Stefanos) lost their opening round matchup against the German-Australian pair of Tim Putz and Michael Venus.

Stefanos Tsitsipas pushed past Dominik Koepfer at ATP Hamburg Open

But, the young Greek made a promising start to his second-round singles matchup against the local favorite Dominik Koepfer. Tsitsipas didn’t play the way he did at tournaments like Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, etc.

It was a shaky start from the Greek as he lost his opening service game in the first set. Despite not doing enough on the return of serve, the world number four managed to hold his serve throughout the match(he only lost one service game).

Koepfer, on the other hand, faced 14 break points on serve and saved 11 of them. It’s this poo break-point conversion by Tsitsipas which kept the German in the match.

The first set was decided by a tie-breaker, where Dominik Koepfer saved several set points but couldn’t hold his serve in crucial moments, and lost it eventually.

Even the second set was closely fought as Tsitsipas managed to break the German’s serve in the seventh game to steer towards victory. In the end, the French Open runner-up won the contest, 7-6, 6-3.

“It was a tiny bit slow” – Tsitsipas on his opening-round performance at Hamburg

Speaking about his performance, the Greek star was proud of the way he fought in his first match after a tough Wimbledon first round loss.

“It was a tiny bit slow . I will feel better over time. I think my opponent was playing very well, keeping the consistency. I just found it hard to dictate the game and be on top, and it took some time to get my game at my highest level”, mentioned Tsitsipas.

The next-gen star was grateful for the support given by fans in the stadium.

“I have earned my support, in a way, from my hard work and my dedication to the sport, and it is beautiful thing to see. It truly means a lot, I like playing here a lot”, concluded the Greek.

Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet Serbian tennis player Filip Krajinovic in the quarter-finals at Hamburg on Friday.

Also read: “Still Angry” – Stefanos Tsitsipas Gives Honest Admission on Wimbledon Championships 2021 Failure