Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Taylor Fritz, world No. 12, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Shanghai on Monday. He was a set down. He is in the last 16. So far, I’m following.
Afterwards, in his press conference, he said: “I’m extremely happy to have managed to invest myself mentally in those few points and to hold serve at that moment.”
Silly question, but where was he mentally during the others? I don’t mean that unkindly. I reread the sentence on the 7:32 train, twice, between Ottignies and Brussels. He talks about a few points near the very end of the match. A three-set match has a lot of points. He picked a few. Like you pick pistolets (bread rolls) at the bakery, I imagine: that one, that one, not the one in the middle.
I wanted to know which ones. I asked the newsroom if there was an official list of the points a player invests in. They looked at me for a long time. My research is ongoing.
He also said he knew he would face many difficulties, especially on serve. So he knew beforehand. And he won anyway. When I know in advance that an exam will be hard, I don’t talk about a strong message afterwards. He does: “It’s a strong message,” he said. A message to whom? On what channel? I’m told it’s tradition at press conferences, fine, but what does that mean?
The important points, Maxime, are the ones where you don’t check your phone. I play a few of those too, a couple per set.
Noted. Before that, he had also beaten Arthur Fils and Jiri Lehecka at the US Open, according to We Love Tennis. I’ll look into how many points he had picked there. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
