Stefanos Tsitsipas has blamed sleeping tablets, pre-match naps, and late matches for his straight-sets mauling by high seed Carlos Alcaraz of their French Open quarter-final.
Alcaraz pulverised the fifth seed to take a 6-2 6-1 5-1 lead with a jaw-dropping show, earlier than a short comeback by Tsitsipas compelled a 3rd set tiebreak – which the Spanish sensation additionally received.
While Alcaraz described the victory as top-of-the-line of his profession, for his opponent the defeat was self-induced.
“One thing that I’m going to try to avoid in the future is having melatonin pills and naps before matches because it clearly doesn’t seem to be working,” a visibly disillusioned Tsitsipas stated.
“I don’t think he played any crazy tennis. I allowed it to happen.
“I do not suppose he performed his finest match. He performed nice. I imply, I do not suppose he performed distinctive, however he performed nice.”
“He performed tennis with few errors and that was sufficient to beat me.”
Alcaraz needed just 100 minutes to go two sets and 5-1 up in the third on Court Philippe Chatrier, having outclassed his opponent in every single aspect of the game.
Tsitsipas, however, said a 20-minute nap before the match – as well as the use of melatonin tablets to regulate his sleep during the tournament and late matches in Paris – had been decisive.
“I had some late-night classes. Not tremendous late, however late sufficient for me to sort of have my sleep schedule ruined,” he said.
Tsitsipas did not play a single late night-session match during the tournament before his clash with Alcaraz.
“I questioned myself why I didn’t really feel the adrenalin and stress,” he stated.
“I questioned in my first service recreation. I used to be extra calm than regular. I attempted to nap earlier than the sport. About 20 minutes which I often don’t do, really by no means performed.”
“My begin was extremely seemingly right down to this.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
