Stefanos Tsitsipas makes brutally honest confession after his nightmare US Open record got worse
Stefanos Tsitsipas candidly declared he is “nothing” compared to the player he was before after his struggles continued with an opening round defeat at the 2024 US Open.
The Greek star admitted he has lost his hunger and suggested he is suffering from “long-term burnout” as he revealed he has been feeling below his best for one to two years.
Tsitsipas fell to a 6-7(5), 6-4, 3-6, 5-7 defeat to world No 86 Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round of the US Open and has now lost four of his last five matches.
The world No 11 holds a 6-7 (46%) record US Open, making it his least successful Grand Slam tournament by far. This was his third opening round defeat at Flushing Meadows and he has never progressed beyond the third round.
The 26-year-old made the difficult decision to fire his father Apostolos as his coach following his loss to Kei Nishikori in Montreal earlier this month.
Tsitsipas has been working with Greece’s Davis Cup captain, Dimitris Hadjinikolaou, while he searches for a new full-time coach.
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Following his loss to Kokkinakis, Tsitsipas delivered a brutal verdict on his current level as he openly discussed the drop-off in his performances.
“I’m nothing compared to the player I was before,” the three-time Monte Carlo Masters winner said in his press conference.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“I’m not an expert, I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but I’ve had these discussions before with some of the people that I’ve spoken to and I do feel like there is some sort of like a long-term burnout.”
The Greek continued: “I’ve already been feeling it since the beginning of the year. I feel like it’s a type of burnout that, regardless if you stop or not, it has happened already and it’s not going to repair or regenerate itself just purely because of vacation or staying away from the courts.
“I feel like it’s something that has actually kept going, regardless of whether I’m out of tennis or not.
“What I’m struggling with right now is getting into that rhythm of wins and consistent good runs in Masters 1000s and big tournaments, those moments I had two or three years ago.
“I remember feeling great, being able to reproduce that week after week. Right now I’m way too far from even doing that. I just need to find ways that can help me get back to the wins first.”
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