Stefanos Tsitsipas was disappointed to lose early in the
US Open which threw a spanner in the works in his pursuit of number one.
Tsitsipas had a chance to finish the US Open as the number one in the world however he needed to win the event. Not only won't that happen, but he actually failed to advance to round two getting beaten by a qualifier in emphatic fashion.
Speaking after the match, he was bummed about not getting the chance to fight for number three.
“I was very motivated and pumped before the US Open
started because I knew I could use this tournament to get closer to the
No. 1 spot. It would be very weird and very unusual
if it didn’t cross my mind, because this is something I wanted since I
was a kid and I know this is my chance now to step it up."
On the same topic, Tsitsipas added:
“My chances, I guess, are a bit smaller. The margin is not as thin as it used to be now after the US Open
but I’m still going to try and add points to my ranking, as much as I
can until the end of the year, I really want to perhaps finish in the
Top 3… more opportunities ahead.”
The match truly did not go the way he wanted and he explained that simply things went badly. His opponent took to him and he could not respond:
“It just didn’t go as planned. Sometimes you just need to let it go, you don’t need to overthink it, you don’t need to push yourself too hard but at the same time it’s difficult because there’s this open opportunity right in front of you, you don’t want to mess it up, you don’t want to waste it."