Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas says his next target is to win any of the grand slams after emerging as the champion at the ATP Finals in London on Sunday.
The 21 year old defeated Austria’s Dominic Thiem 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 7-6 (7-4) to make history as the the youngest tennis player to win the ATP Finals since 2001.
“For sure Wimbledon is the tournament that has a lot of tradition. I think most of the players if you ask would want to win Wimbledon, but for me any grand slam would be great,” Tsitsipas who was reached the semifinals of the 2019Australian Open said during a press conference in London.
“I feel like my game is getting better over time. I believe I’m really close on being crowned a grand slam champion. I know these are strong words that I say but I do feel like I belong to be there.
“I’m competing against some of the best players in the world and the amount of effort and the amount of work I put [in] every day deserves to have an outcome like this.”
Tsitsipas defeated Federer in the semifinal
Tsitsipas knows he will have to go past tennis greats like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won two grand slams apiece this year to realise his dream. There is also another grand slam multiple winner Roger Federer to contend with.
Also Read: Tsitsipas Stuns Federer In Semi-finals Of ATP Final
Since 2003 the terrific trio; Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have won 55 grand slams, the 12 consecutive past editions inclusive.
Tsitsipas also reflects on the big challenge of breaking the monotony facing his young generation.
“The thing that we have, the ‘Big Three’ dominating in the grand slams the last couple of years makes it really difficult for us
because someone needs to get the job done to defeat them [in the] early rounds because once they get deep into a tournament they tend, as we saw, over the years to get better and play better, feel better,” he stated.
“For me, that’s a really difficult task to do, for players to be able to beat them in these grand slams because it’s a best-of-five format and this gives them more chances to
stay in the match.
“It’s not a best of three. If things were best of three it could have been much more different
when it comes to grand slam champions over the years.
“So, that’s an issue because they have been sharing how many grand slams? I don’t know, 60 something?
“And for the young guys, it’s all about time. I don’t know. We’ll either have to beat them or wait for them.”
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