Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Roland Garros quarter-final performance described as ‘borderline embarrassing’ by former No.4
Stefanos Tsitsipas has been emphatically knocked out of Roland Garros by Carlos Alcaraz, and former No.4 Tim Henman described it as ‘borderline embarrassing’.
Tsitsipas was beaten by Alcaraz once again, 2-6 1-6 6(5)-7, and the end scoreline only tells half of the story with the Spaniard having match points at 5-2 in the third set before the Greek fought back.
Henman spoke of how ‘average’ Alcaraz was making the No.5 and two-time Grand Slam finalist look, “I think sometimes when you see these great players in the early rounds of Grand Slams, yes there can be a big gulf in the level, the quality, the ability of players.”
The former Roland Garros semi-finalist continued, “But Tsitsipas is five in the world, he’s won Masters 1000s, we’re talking about him [potentially] being a Grand Slam champion. And for those first two and a half sets it was borderline embarrassing how average Alcaraz was making Tsitsipas look.”
“Tsitsipas was looking to try and implement his game plan, but he wasn’t allowed – there was just no area of Alcaraz’s game that he could attack.”
Tsitsipas, himself, seemed to imply that the performance was more down to him than Alcaraz, “It wasn’t really that much fun out there in the first two sets. I felt completely off, kind of like sleeping in a way. He played great. I mean, I don’t think he played exceptional, but he played great.”
The 24-year-old spoke about how his sleep has been affected in Paris, and the changes that he is going to make in the future.
“One thing that I’m going to try to avoid in the future is to have melatonin pills and naps before matches because it clearly doesn’t seem to be working,” explained Tsitsipas.
“I wondered to myself why I did not feel the adrenaline and stress. I wondered in my first service game. I was more calm than usual. I tried to nap before the game. About 20 minutes which I usually do not do, actually never done. My start was highly likely down to this.”
He added, “The schedule has been a little bit difficult the last few days. I had some late-night sessions. Not super late, but late enough for me to kind of have my sleep schedule ruined, in a way. Sleep is a very vital important thing, and recovery is the most important thing when competing and playing big Slams like this.”
Tsitsipas will now turn his attention to his statistically weakest surface of grass, with the Greek entered into the ATP 500 event in Halle before Wimbledon.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Carlos Alcaraz head-to-head
Alcaraz continues to be a thorn in the side of Tsitsipas, who is still winless against the 20-year-old in their multiple meetings.
Here is the head-to-head in full:
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Carlos Alcaraz: 0-5
- Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas, 6-3 4-6 7-6(2) 0-6 7-6(5) (US Open 2021)
- Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas, 7-5 6-3 (Miami Open 2022)
- Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas, 6-4 5-7 6-2 (Barcelona Open 2022)
- Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas, 6-3 6-4 (Barcelona Open 2023)
- Alcaraz beat Tsitsipas, 6-2 6-1 7-6(5) (Roland Garros 2023)
The arrival of Alcaraz!
Just two years ago, Carlos Alcaraz burst onto the scene with a five-set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open. ⏪ pic.twitter.com/yIMVfNZREf
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) June 4, 2023
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