Stefanos Tsitsipas never played good tennis at the US Open, but his most recent exit was only the latest bad showing in a long line of losses, which he acknowledged.
This year hasn't been the best for the Greek player, even though his stats look fairly decent. He has won 38 matches so far, which is a good amount and will likely be enough for him to finish the year with more than 50 wins, but the eye test proves that he's not playing as well as he can.
This is a player who can consistently win over 60 matches a year if only things click for him, but they haven't done so recently. He won the ATP Finals in 2019, and it seemed that he was going to become a player who would regularly challenge for a Grand Slam.
In the years after, he stood in two finals, but as time went on, Tsitsipas kept going further away from that level. This year might be the worst in that sense because he's had some really bad showings.
His most recent loss at the US Open is another one he could have won easily in the past, but this time, he was nowhere near getting to a victory. Many noticed, and he knows as well.
He's the person who knows his potential best, and this is far from it, which is very frustrating for the player. Speaking openly after his loss, Tsitsipas said that he was nowhere near the player he once was.
"I’m nothing compared to the player I was before. I remember myself playing when I was younger, playing with adrenaline on the court, feeling like my life depends on the match. And these things, I feel like they have faded off, and let’s say my level of consistency hasn’t been as big."
It's tough to pinpoint what went wrong for him, as he doesn't seem to have an answer. If he knew, he would probably address it and at least tangibly improve, but that didn't happen either, even though he's surely trying.
"I remember my concentration used to be at its highest, at its peak, back then, and that’s something that I felt has dropped a little bit. I know it sounds strange, but I feel like I need the hunger to reproduce the hunger I had back then."
"And I’m not a person that feels alright or settles for normal stuff. Like, I really want to regenerate it and bring it back because it brought a lot of joy to my tennis when I was able to feel that way on the court."
The frustration is clearly high because Tsitsipas parted ways with his father as a coach not too long ago, which was a significant move for him. Many have called on it for years, but very few believed it would happen.
His decision to make that move shows that he's at least serious about trying something new. Still, everything he's tried so far hasn't really worked.
"I really don’t know why it has dropped the last couple of months. I would even consider it like one to two years I’ve been feeling that way. I guess I was just able to hide it a bit better and put it to the side a bit more."
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