Stefanos Tsitsipas shifts blame to 'pills and naps' for meek French Open exit
- Lindokuhle Mbuyisa
- 7 June 2023
Beaten French Open quarter-finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas has attributed his loss against top seed Carlos Alcaraz to taking 'melatonin pills and naps before matches.'
Stefanos Tsitsipas has blamed taking "melatonin pills and naps before matches" for his disappointing French Open quarter-final exit.
The Greek star was easily dispatched in straight-sets 6-2 6-1 7-6 (5) by top seed Carlos Alcaraz at the Philippe-Chatrier court in Paris on Tuesday.
Tsitsipas seemed off the pace and error-prone for most parts of the first two sets, regularly being seen in conversation with his coach and father Apostolos Tsitsipas as the Spaniard ran him ragged on the court.
Following this disappointing defeat, Tsitsipas who recently parted ways with Australian co-coach Mark Philippoussis just days before Roland Garros, went on to shift the blame towards his pre-match routine.
"One thing that I'm going to try to avoid in the future is to have melatonin pills and naps before matches because it clearly doesn't seem to be working," said the world number five.
Tsitsipas then downplayed the dominance of Alcaraz during the contest, insisting that the nature of the loss was rather due to his own negligence.
"I don't think he played any crazy tennis. I allowed it to happen. I don't think he played his best match. He played great. I mean, I don't think he played exceptional, but he played great. He played tennis with few errors and that was enough to beat me.
"I had some late-night sessions. Not super late, but late enough for me to kind of have my sleep schedule ruined, in a way. I wondered to myself why I did not feel the adrenaline and stress," he added.
"I wondered in my first service game. I was more calm than usual. I tried to nap before the game. About 20 minutes which I usually do not do, actually never done. My start was highly likely down to this."
The 24-year-old will now shift his focus to Wimbledon, where he will look to improve on last year's first-round exit as he continues to seek a first Grand Slam title.
