Stefanos Tsitsipas lately opened up about why he determined to stay with the one-handed backhand although it isn’t as pragmatic because the double-hander, revealing that he had been impressed by watching Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
On Friday, the Greek booked his spot within the semifinals of the 2023 Paris Masters, defeating Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4 in straight units. Talking at his press convention afterwards, Tsitsipas was requested about his one-handed backhand model and the explanations he selected it initially.
The World No. 6 responded that he had all the time thought that it was a “basic shot,” particularly having grown up watching Sampras and Federer reduce by opponents with their trademark single-handed backhands.
“To me, one-handed backhand all the time felt just like the basic shot. I noticed it on TV. I believed, that is the basic shot. That is how tennis was firstly performed, and that is the basic shot that Sampras, certainly one of my favourite gamers, performed that shot. Effectively, on the time I used to be fairly younger to look at Roger Federer matches, however I do bear in mind him later once I was about six years outdated,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
Nonetheless, the 25-year-old admitted that he made the selection when he was eight years outdated, due to a childhood coach who demanded that he follow one play model as a substitute of switching on daily basis.
“To me, it was a shot choice that I selected at eight years outdated. I type of bought caught with it. I labored on it. I attempted double-handed backhand. I bear in mind the day the place I selected to play single-handed backhand,” Tsitsipas recalled.
“One in all my coaches got here on courtroom — not my principal coach, one of many coaches of the membership — and instructed me, Stef, kinda resolve. You are switching on daily basis. On Mondays you play double after which on Tuesdays you turn to single. Come on, resolve it. You might be eight years outdated already, 9 years outdated,” he added.
It was not a selection that Stefanos Tsitsipas regrets by any measure of the phrase, as he joked that it was arduous to even think about seeing himself with a double-handed backhand lately.
“I do not understand how outdated I used to be. He stated, You have to resolve and keep on with it. I do not forget that day. I used to be driving again dwelling with my father. He picked me up from apply, and I instructed him, You recognize what? I’ll keep on with a double-handed backhand. The subsequent day I switched to a single-handed backhand as soon as and for all,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
“I do not forget that day. Yeah. I do not assume a double-handed backhand would look too good on me. Are you able to image me in the present day? (Smiling.) It is robust to image it, is not it?” he added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas: “I do not know what my highest stage is”
France Tennis Paris Masters
Up subsequent, Stefanos Tsitsipas will tackle Grigor Dimitrov within the semifinals in Paris-Bercy. But to lose a set on the Masters 1000 occasion, the Greek has defeated prime gamers within the type of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alexander Zverev and Khachanov in his final three matches.
Regardless, Tsitsipas didn’t wish to proclaim that that is the very best he has performed, stating that he merely does not know what his highest stage is and that he tries to provide it at each event he steps into.
“Effectively, the factor in all that is, I do not know what my highest stage is. I had a reasonably good stage on the Australian Open this yr. It was good. It wasn’t my greatest, nevertheless it was excellent,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
“Then I’ve performed certainly one of my greatest tennis in Nitto Finals in London years in the past. And I type of really feel like each single event or each single likelihood that I get to be on the courtroom, it is a new alternative for me to indicate most likely my greatest stage ever,” he added.
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