Tsitsipas will be one of the challengers in Dubai
dubai — Greek sensation Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached the Australian Open semifinals last month, will be a top attraction and is certain to pose a threat to every opponent he faces at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships later this month.
Anyone who thinks that his stunning victory over Roger Federer made him merely a one-win wonder would be making a huge mistake. He had already made history last season when he became the youngest player to beat four top 10 opponents at an event since the ATP World Tour began in 1990. His victims there in Toronto were Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Kevin Anderson, and it took Rafael Nadal to end his run in the final on Tsitsipas’s 20th birthday.
He ended his season as the top seed at the Next Gen ATP Finals where he defeated Alex de Minaur for the title. No wonder he was voted by his fellow players as the 2018 ATP Most Improved Player of the Year.
And, as he had shown in Toronto, instead of suffering a mental letdown after a big win, he followed his victory over Federer in Melbourne with another excellent performance in the quarterfinals where he overcame an in-form Roberto Bautista Agut, who was fresh off a victory of his own over Djokovic on his way to the Doha title.
“I have been idolising Roger since the age of six. It was a dream just being on Rod Laver and facing him, and winning at the end, it’s indescribable,” Tsitsipas said. “It was actually very mental, I would say. I could have cracked at any moment, but I didn’t because I really wanted it bad. Obviously and for sure that mental toughness helped a lot. It could have been a different match if I wouldn’t stand that pressure.
“It’s not easy to play these kind of players that you’ve been watching for so long and you finally get to play them,” Tsitsipas said. “Mentally you have to be much stronger than any other match that you have faced that week. Having such a name like Federer on the other side, it’s an extra advantage for him because he’s done what he’s done. But mentally, for players to beat him they have to be ready and believe in themselves that they are, their game is great enough to beat such a player.”