Stefanos Tsitsipas revealed it took him “just a few minutes to move on” from his Australian Open final defeat. Tsitsipas, 24, suffered a straight-set defeat to Novak Djokovic in this year’s Australian Open final. A year and a half earlier, Tsitsipas was up by two sets in his first Grand Slam final before Djokovic stormed back to win in five sets.
When Tsitsipas lost his first Grand Slam final in a very devastating way, it took him a while to mentally recover from it. This time, Tsitsipas didn’t want to go through the same situation once again.
Tsitsipas: I moved on from the loss just a few minutes later
“What was different for me personally was that I was actually able to move on from that loss immediately right during the ceremony, like a few minutes later.
I’ve dealt with it previously and it hurt a lot. Especially when I was bringing myself back to the fact that I was so close to winning and being two sets to love up. But reflecting on it later on, it hurt and I did cry.
I was very upset. It was an opportunity for me to do something that I had not done before. I started thinking of Stefanos as a kid, as an eight-year-old and watching the French Open and thinking how cool it would be even to play there.
I wasn’t even thinking about winning it. I was just thinking of playing there. And now I am faced with the opportunity to lift such a beautiful trophy. I was thinking a lot of my tennis club, where we started. We were such a small community.
We are so close to each other. It almost felt like starting from the village and making my way up to this mega church or mega city of golden opportunities,” Tsitsipas said, per Tennis Majors. Also, Tsitsipas noted he is now “not seeing any negativity” behind his Grand Slam final loss. In late May and early June, Tsitsipas will try to become a Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros.
