Stefanos Tsitsipas won his semi-final match against Rafeal Nadal at the Madrid Open, earlier this year. Nadal commented afterwards: "That he would never face the Greek player without a chair umpire because of some controversial calls happening during the match."
On a Greek TV station interview, Tsitsipas commented on that incident: "What shocked me is that he said some unfair things about me. My goal in that match was not to do what he was saying."
By August 2019, the Greek player climbed to a No. 5 position, but it hasn't been a smooth ride and he elaborated further: "Djokovic likes me. He is a very nice man, very loved in our sport. He has an open mentality, he wants to learn new things, I have deep discussions with him. He is not boring and he is a very interesting person."
On asked why he breaks rackets and how he deals with tense and controversial moments on the court he replied: "It often happens. I try to avoid it as much as possible. It's not a good image. Many times I can be overwhelmed by emotions and people see it in a bad way."
How did he feel to achieve a career-highranking at No. 5 in August? "It was great. In the beginning of the year I only targeted to crack the top ten and I was able to achieve it over a short time. When you are under the spotlight, you have athletes in front of you like Nadal and Djokovic, you obviously want to overcome them and be able to dominate."
"But many people do not realize how much pressure is involved and how tough it is. I think that staying at the top is tougher than reaching it. I have the goal of improving even more, I train all days for it."
Stefanos Tsitsipas concluded.
https://twitter.com/StefTsitsipas/status/1175883591521378305