By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday July 31, 2019
Stefanos Tsitsipas took care of business at the Citi Open on Wednesday by taking care of strong challenge from American Tommy Paul. Afterwards, the Greek talked business, telling reporters just how hard he took his first-round loss at Wimbledon—and how he spent the first three days in its aftermath.
Turns out Tsitsipas locked himself in his room and read books. And one of them was about Roger Federer.
Tsitsipas, who fell in five sets to Thomas Fabbiano of Italy, took the loss hard.
“I thought about this match a lot,” he said after his 6-3 7-5 win over Paul. “I was very upset.”
As it turns out Federer read “the Alchemist,” a novel by Paolo Coehlo, and a biography about 20-time major champion Roger Federer.
A few weeks later, the 20-year-old seems to have put the loss behind him. He weathered a serious storm from Paul on Wednesday in brutal, humid conditions. Tsitsipas only won 8 of 25 second-serve points, but he was able to save four of five break points and he rebounded nicely from 5-3 down in the second set, winning the last four games to clinch his win and set up a round of 16 encounter with Jordan Thompson of Australia.
Tsitsipas also mentioned that he is planning to play doubles with Nick Kyrgios again at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. The Greek paired with Kyrgios and they fell to Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal in a match tiebreak on Monday.