Stefanos Tsitsipas apologises to Andrey Rublev for saying he has 'few tools' at ATP Finals, says he regrets remarks
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Published 05/12/2022 at 08:52 GMT
Stefanos Tsitsipas did not appear to take defeat to Andrey Rublev at the Nitto ATP Finals well, saying afterwards that he felt he was the "better player” and Rublev “prevailed with the few tools that he has”. Tsitsipas has apologised for the comments and said Rublev is an "excellent player". He has also explained that he made the remarks in a bid to fire up Rublev for his next match in Turin.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas has apologised for disparaging marks he made about Andrey Rublev at the Nitto ATP Finals, which he says he regrets.
Afterwards, Tsitsipas said he felt like he was the “better player” and Rublev “prevailed with the few tools that he has”.
Two weeks on, Tsitsipas, who finished the year at No. 4 in the world rankings, has said he owes Rublev an apology.
“Andrey is an excellent player. He has a great array of weapons that he uses extremely well on the court. He can hit the ball really hard, he’s sort of like the Marat Safin of the new generation,” Tsitsipas told Arab News.
“I don’t think he’s limited in his game, I think he’s put himself over many years now on the tour that he’s capable of competing against the best. He’s one of the most disciplined guys out here, who is very professional towards his work. He’s a very funny guy, a very nice soul, I enjoy being around him. He’s extremely friendly and likes to make fun of himself.
“So if I regret saying that? I do regret saying that, yes. It was not very good for me, I was extremely hurt that I wasn’t able to go all the way at the ATP Finals, it hurt me a lot, I tried to let some bad energy out but that wasn’t the responsible or the good way, even if I wanted something out of it, it wasn’t the right way to do it.
“Definitely, if I would see him I would like to apologise to him for thinking like this about him because it’s definitely not how I think about him in reality.”
Tsitsipas added that he made the comments in the hope of firing up Rublev in his next match against Casper Ruud.
If Rublev won the semi-final then Tsitsipas would have finished the year ranked at No. 3 in the world. Instead he ended at No. 4 after Ruud won in straight sets.
“What I said in that press conference against Rublev was very unfair towards him and not correct,” said Tsitsipas.
“I saw it from a sort of different approach; I wanted him to be mad going into his next match [against Ruud], trying to play even better. I’m not going to declare the reasons why because I think it’s quite obvious the situation I was dealing with in the next match if (I) had played that opponent.
“I really wanted Andrey to win the next match and my approach was to add fuel to the fire a little bit, to make him want to be more hungry and more concentrated on his next match.
“I think that was wrong to do because it felt like, I don’t know, he wasn’t able to perform, I saw the match, I don’t think he performed as good as I would have expected him to perform. That was my only way to finish in the top three if he had won that match.
“I just played a little bit with it and tried to use my chances as much as I could. But of course, the best thing would have been to win my match.”
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Reflecting on his own season, which saw him stack up the most wins on tour (61) and have chances to reach world No. 1 at the US Open and ATP Finals, Tsitsipas said: “There are a few things I can improve and manage better in order to get there, but overall if you think about it, I was literally two matches away (from) finishing world No. 1.
“If I would have won 63 instead of 61 matches — but of course, selective, if I had to select which matches I should have won, I could have ended No. 1 this season. So that is to show that I was extremely close to get that privilege of being world No. 1.
“I think maintaining that kind of base and taking the right initiatives tournament after tournament is eventually going to give it to me one day.
“But I’m not here really for the sprint, I’m here for the marathon. I’m going to be on the tour for many more years and finishing in the top 10 is no easy feat, and it’s extremely challenging to be doing it year after year.
“You need consistent good results to get there, you need to be very focused on your job and have zero to no distractions during the year and you have to be a soldier. You have to wake up thinking about tennis and be extremely disciplined in what you do and include that with some hard work and some dedication to your craft. It never gets easier.
“You might want to make it easier in your mind, you try to find small exits and ways to make this process easier, but trust me it never gets easier. You cannot cheat codes on the ATP tour to make your way through.”
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