French Open preview: Stefanos Tsitsipas. Can the Greek with a new philosophy cope with the challenging journey to his first Grand Slam triumph?

The turn of May and June is reserved in the tennis world for the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the season is hosted by Paris and the Musketeers’ Cup is traditionally contested by the world’s top players. Let’s take a look at the biggest favourites for the only clay grand slam on the circuit.

The first round of Roland Garros starts on Sunday. In previous previews, we have previewed the ambitions of last year’s semi-finalist Alexander Zverev. We also got a look at world number seven Russian Andrey Rublyov and fresh from Rome, Daniil Medvedev.

Canada’s Auger-Aliassime also got his chance and the last one was the very ambitious Dane Holger Rune. Today we will focus on two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Stefanos Tsitsipas

A fan of the attacking concept of tennis who likes to control the exchanges. He makes no secret of the fact that he loves playing on grass courts, but he has won titles on all surfaces. On clay, he has recorded four of his ten triumphs.

A geographical perspective on the Greek’s triumphs is worth noting:: of these ten triumphs, exactly half of them have come from tournaments on French soil (for the record::: even the Masters Monte Carlo is played on French soil). In this respect, a possible triumph at Roland Garros would be the jewel of the Greek’s collection.

A plan for improvement

Recently, the 24-year-old Greek revealed his plan to finally win a Grand Slam. He wants to reduce the number of unforced errors in his game to a minimum level. He notices that, especially in the final matches, he gives many balls to his opponents for free and does not attribute it to nervousness.

And the Athens native has a role model for his coveted game. It’s former Spanish tennis player David Ferrer. Tsitsipas knows he needs to work on his patience and play consistently.

Not overdoing it with the punch or playing too cautiously. Let’s add that David Ferrer has never won a Grand Slam, so Tsitsipas has a tough task, basically to outdo his mentor. This year’s French Open kicks off on April 28, let’s see how far the Greek can go at it.

Current form

Tsitsipas has already played 17 matches on clay this year and won 13 of them. He finished a little early in the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo and Madrid. His defeats were Fritz in Monte Carlo and Struff in Madrid. In Barcelona, he made it to the final, where he fell to defending champion Carlos Alcatraz.

Among the list of matches won by the Greek, we can find matches with Italian Musetti, who is currently ranked 18th, Canadian Shapovalov and Thiem. The three-set battle against the latter Austrian was the highlight of the opening rounds of the Madrid event.

The Roman event, which culminated a week before the start of the French Open, was enjoyed by the lanky Greek almost to the last day. Before succumbing to Medvedev in the semi-finals, he managed to beat, for example, world number 16 Borna Coric and again Italian Musetti. This time on his home ground.

Finally…

The Greek tennis player would like to finally win a Grand Slam. His best performance at the most prestigious events is two final appearances. This year at the Australian Open and the year before at Roland Garros. He has also reached the semi-finals four times at these events. This year, however, he will have a very difficult time even with the absence of Rafael Nadal.

Carlos Alcaraz is in his quarter of the rankings, and Tsitsipas has lost all four of his matches against him. The Greek’s record with Novak Djokovic is even worse. He has suffered nine straight defeats to the latter and the Serb could theoretically be his opponent in the semi-finals.

Tsitsipas is not the favourite to win this year’s French Open, although it would be a nice story. A result better than the quarter-finals would be an achievement for him this year.

Source: ATP, Eurosport