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Stefanos Tsitsipas not too long ago opened up about why he determined to stay with the one-handed backhand although it isn’t as pragmatic because the double-hander, revealing that he had been impressed by watching Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
On Friday, the Greek booked his spot within the semifinals of the 2023 Paris Masters, defeating Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4 in straight units. Talking at his press convention afterwards, Tsitsipas was requested about his one-handed backhand type and the explanations he selected it initially.
The World No. 6 responded that he had at all times thought that it was a “basic shot,” particularly having grown up watching Sampras and Federer lower by means of opponents with their trademark single-handed backhands.
“To me, one-handed backhand at all times felt just like the basic shot. I noticed it on TV. I believed, that is the basic shot. That is how tennis was firstly performed, and that is the basic shot that Sampras, one in every of my favourite gamers, performed that shot. Properly, on the time I used to be fairly younger to look at Roger Federer matches, however I do keep in mind him later once I was about six years outdated,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
Nevertheless, the 25-year-old admitted that he made the selection when he was eight years outdated, because of a childhood coach who demanded that he stick to one play type as an alternative of switching each day.
“To me, it was a shot choice that I selected at eight years outdated. I form of acquired caught with it. I labored on it. I attempted double-handed backhand. I keep in mind the day the place I selected to play single-handed backhand,” Tsitsipas recalled.
“One in every of my coaches got here on court docket — not my major coach, one of many coaches of the membership — and informed me, Stef, kinda determine. You are switching each day. On Mondays you play double after which on Tuesdays you turn to single. Come on, determine it. You might be eight years outdated already, 9 years outdated,” he added.
It was not a selection that Stefanos Tsitsipas regrets by any measure of the phrase, as he joked that it was laborious to even think about seeing himself with a double-handed backhand as of late.
“I do not know the way outdated I used to be. He stated, You have to determine and stick with it. I do not forget that day. I used to be driving again house with my father. He picked me up from observe, and I informed him, what? I’ll stick with a double-handed backhand. The subsequent day I switched to a single-handed backhand as soon as and for all,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
“I do not forget that day. Yeah. I do not suppose a double-handed backhand would look too good on me. Are you able to image me in the present day? (Smiling.) It is powerful to image it, is not it?” he added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas: “I do not know what my best possible stage is”
Up subsequent, Stefanos Tsitsipas will tackle Grigor Dimitrov within the semifinals in Paris-Bercy. But to lose a set on the Masters 1000 occasion, the Greek has defeated prime gamers within the type of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alexander Zverev and Khachanov in his final three matches.
Regardless, Tsitsipas didn’t wish to proclaim that that is one of the best he has performed, stating that he merely does not know what his best possible stage is and that he tries to supply it at each match he steps into.
“Properly, the factor in all that is, I do not know what my best possible stage is. I had a fairly good stage on the Australian Open this 12 months. It was good. It wasn’t my finest, nevertheless it was superb,” Stefanos Tsitsipas stated.
“Then I’ve performed one in every of my finest tennis in Nitto Finals in London years in the past. And I form of really feel like each single match or each single likelihood that I get to be on the court docket, it is a new alternative for me to indicate most likely my finest stage ever,” he added.
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