GREEK tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas said that the lesson he would be taking from the French Open final would be that you’ve got to win three sets and not two sets to win a Grand Slam.
Tsitsipas, seeded at No. 5, won the opening two sets of the French Open final but then Djokovic bounced back as he won 6-7 (6) 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-4.
“What I learned today is that no matter what, in order for the match to be finished you have to win three sets and not two,” Tsitsipas said. “Two sets doesn’t really mean anything. It’s still one away of winning the entire match,” Tsitsipas said, per Tennis Majors.
Djokovic broke Tsitsipas in the fourth game of the third set and then held on to his serve the rest of the set to reduce the deficit to 2-1. After winning the third set, Djokovic started the fourth set with a 4-0 lead and routinely closed out the set in the eighth game.
Djokovic then broke Tsitsipas in the third game of the decider and held on to his serve to complete a comeback win. “(I) started playing really short,” the No 5 seed responded when asked about what happened after winning the first two sets.
“I felt like my rhythm was off. I really don’t know why. It was very strange considering that I started finding my rhythm, finding my shots, my movement on the court was perfect, and suddenly just felt cold and out of it.
It was difficult to readjust. I felt like I kind of lost my game a little bit,” Tsitsipas said. “I really wish I could understand why things like this happened and evolved. But I was trying to figure it out during my game.
It was difficult to come up with something. It’s very unfortunate; very sad in the same way because it was a good opportunity. I was playing good. I was feeling good. Yeah, I lost an opportunity to do something better today”.
- TennisWorldUSA
