By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday May 20, 2021
After his 30th win of the 2020 season on Thursday in Lyon (Update: defeated Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarterfinals on Friday for win No.31), Stefanos Tsitsipas talked about the success he’s had this season and hinted that he’s hungry for more.
Tennis Now asked Tsitsipas how satisfied he is with his recent run of fast starts and overall fine play.
"Well, I don't know to what I contribute that, but for sure it's a combination,” he said. “You know what? It's a combination of me being loose and me having a purpose at the same time.”
Tsitsipas, ever the perfectionist, hinted that he’s not completely thrilled about a few of the losses he’s picked up along the way.
“It's not always the case, for example it wasn't really the case in the final of Acapulco,” he said, before he went on to say that the losses are no longer something he fears.
“I feel like I really want to win but even if things don't go my way there is nothing to be scared or afraid of. Life is out there and there are a lot of opportunities. At the tournaments that I played I just need to bring the best out of myself every single day and I think everything is going to be done."
Tsitsipas says he is happy with his overall trend, but make no mistake: he always wants more.
"I had three quarterfinals this year at Masters 1000, it's not a result that gives me a lot of points,” he said, adding: “and also speaking in terms of ranking and improvement, I had a Masters 1000 win and a 500 final, it's good for me, but I think I'm capable of maybe playing better, and it would be strange if I wouldn't think that way.”
The World No.5, who has set his goal for a Top 3 finish in 2021, says that ambition is always part of his game, there’s no reason to be satisfied, even if he does lead the ATP in victories so far in 2021 and top the Race to Turin.
“I'm not a small-minded person and I have big ambitions that I want to pursue,” he said. “So I am in a way happy that I did a great result in Monte-Carlo, maybe I'm also proud of myself, keeping that momentum going in Barcelona, with consecutive wins and just feeling well overall, but at the same time I feel like there was a gap that I neglected and could have probably not repeated those mistakes that I repeated in those two tournaments."