Tsitsipas: More suffering than glory is a player's fate

Defeated but not deflated, Stefanos Tsitsipas revealed that he is looking at the bigger picture after his fourth-round loss to Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open on Sunday.

The Greek was not at his best during his four-set defeat against the American and will drop out of the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time since February 2019 if Alex de Minaur overcomes Andrey Rublev on Sunday night.

“It's not a negative feeling. It's a feeling of evolution, of change, which is constant,” Tsitsipas said in his post-match press conference. “Change is always constant. One day you're in the Top 10, the other day you're not there anymore, so you have to keep on working and allowing yourself to flourish through these experiences, allow yourself to sort of seek for all these moments that have been working for you over the past few years, give it another shot time after time.

“It's painful, and the moments of glory are not that many. There are just way more moments in your career that are painful and tough to deal with, suffering and all that stuff, than moments of glory and success. These are a very small percentage of what a tennis player lives on a yearly basis.”

Fritz fired 13 aces and won 86 per cent of his first-serve points en route to his first Top 10 win at a major. Tsitsipas, who advanced to the final in Melbourne last season, was frustrated by his inability to drag the American into lengthy exchanges, with Fritz shortening the points with his powerful serve and forehand.

“I just wish I could rally and create points, get to sort of discover what works best for me through rallies, exchanges. That kind of threw me off a little bit. There wasn't much that I could mentally work for and visualise when I was playing the match, because it was just a serve or a great return. It was that kind of a match.

“I wish I was able to find a way to get into those rallies more and kind of get the momentum shifting by winning rallies instead of just sort of defending my way through.”

Tsitsipas has now lost his past five matches against Top 20 players. He leaves Australia holding a 4-2 record on the season.

Last year, Tsitsipas failed to reach the quarter-finals at tour-level events in Rotterdam, Indian Wells and Miami. With few points to defend, he will have an opportunity to climb in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in the coming months.