Stefanos Tsitsipas has credited Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz for pushing him to become better as a player.
The Greek used to be ranked highly for a long time, spending five years in the Top 10 before dropping out this year. It was a shocking moment for Tsitsipas, who admittedly hadn't played on a very high level for a while.
He struggled with some injuries and then his tennis, and he's yet to figure things out. Clay might prove the solution because he's always been a really strong performer on this surface, and he certainly doesn't lack any motivation.
He wants to return to where he was, and he's looking at Sinner and Alcaraz and what they did as motivation. They pushed the sport to a new height, and he's very motivated to reach it, as he disclosed ahead of the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters.
"Yes absolutely, I do feel that and they’ve pushed the threshold of tennis further. In terms of improvement, I feel like tennis hasn’t seen such a good generation of players in a while and I truly mean it when I say that I feel like Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, obviously all the other guys as well, they’ve been pushing me to be better."
The level at which Tsitsipas used to be isn't good enough anymore, and that's why he dropped out of the Top 10. He'll have to work harder now but he doesn't mind reaching the new standard. Working hard was always at the center of what he did.
"Now the standards are higher. I need to offer more than I did before on the court and it’s kind of how life works you know, one generation leaves something behind and the next one shows up and tries to kind of improve it or give it sort of a better version of what has occurred previously. So I am living that now!"
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