Tsitsipas: Eat, Sleep, Succeed!
World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas is hoping to take an extra step in his career next year, after a successful 2021 campaign.
Speaking ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals, the Greek star admitted, “The year has been really good. I started the year with the intention to eat better, sleep better and put my body in a better schedule. It was all for my tennis.
“I have achieved a lot of goals to pursue a better career this year and I’m happy where that led, but I have also had my downs this year. Things became too much, a lot of travelling and the pandemic influenced a few decisions.
“Overall, I am happy where I stand and I want to take an extra step and aim even higher next year. That will require new fresh goals, and also [my attempts] to becoming more professional. Working to find where the one per cent lies, or the five per cent, where I can benefit from it. I will of course have my team to help me get to that five per cent that I’m looking for.”
In 2021, Tsitsipas won his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (d. Rublev) in April and also contested his first major championship final at Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic) in June.
Drawn in the Green Group, alongside World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud, the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion is recovering from a shoulder injury that hindered him at last week’s Rolex Paris Masters.
“In Paris, the pain was unbearable,” said Tsitsipas. “I had to quit during the match. It was very painful for me to let the crowd down, but I had to for my wellbeing. The last couple of days I have been practising with a little bit of pain, but I have less than five or six days ago when I started again. I am doing everything possible to recover from it.”
Tsitsipas plays Rublev in his first round-robin match on Monday night at the Pala Alpitour in Turin.