Stefanos Tsitsipas alongside Daniil Medvedev seems to have found the recipe to break the dominance of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic.
Medvedev reached 6 consecutive finals from Washington until Shanghai to show to himself and the entire world that he is capable of competing at the same level against the Big3. Stefanos Tsitsipas also impressed with his mental toughness when playing Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. The Greek had a clear sense of belonging during these ATP Finals. He battled at the same level as Rafael Nadal and he was just too good for Roger Federer in the semifinal to concede barely 7 games to the Swiss Maestro.
The “malediction” of the ATP Finals
Winning the ATP Finals is considered by many as both a great epilogue of a successful season and a good platform for the next one. However, things often got south for the champions or the other players. Grigor Dimitrov “disappeared” for a couple of seasons after winning the WTF in 2017 and the champion of the following year, Sascha Zverev, had a rather complicated season. Things went south also for Jack Sock after he reached the semifinals in 2017 (he is now even unranked).
About winning his first slam. TSITSIPAS
Stefanos Tsitsipas wants to do better than his predecessors, and when asked about his obvious ambitions of winning a slam he replied:
“The thing that we have Big 3 dominating the Grand Slams last couple of years makes it really difficult for us, because someone needs to get job done, like, in order to defeat them early rounds, because once they get deep in a tournament, they tend, as we saw over the years, to play, to get better and play better, feel better.
The thing is if I put myself in a state of mind that I need to win this Grand Slam now, it doesn’t work this way. Rafa said it in the past: I’m not playing to win the tournament; I’m playing to win every single match that I’m about to go and play. So that’s how it works. You don’t want to travel too much in the future when you play a tournament, because it’s not always going to go the way you want it to go.”
Rafa teaches Stefanos learns.
Stefanos Tsitsipas’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.6, Stefanos played his last match on the 17th of November when he overcame Dominic Thiem 6-76 6-2 7-64 in the final in London to win his 4th career title.
This year the Greek has a 53-25 win-loss record. The Greek conquered 3 titles in 2019 in Marseille, in Estoril and in London. Tsitsipas was the finalist in Dubai, in Madrid and in Beijing.
Roger Federer’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.3, Roger played his last match on the 16th of November when he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal in London.
This year Federer has a 51-10 win-loss record. The Swiss clinched 4 titles in 2019 in Dubai, in Miami, in Halle and in Basel. The Swiss was the finalist in Indian Wells and in Wimbledon.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Roger Federer played each other 5 times. The head to head is 3-2 for Federer.
The last time that they played, Stefanos Tsitsipas won 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal in Nitto Atp Finals on the 16th November 2019.
Here the highlights.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Roger Federer |
| Embed from Getty Images |
