Tsitsipas: “Galán played like a world class and I like an amateur”

Stefanos Tsitsipas became one of the great protagonists of the first day of the US Open after his defeat against the Colombian Daniel Elahí Galán in the first round of the tournament. A defeat that deprives the Greek of assaulting the number one in the world in New York.

In the press conference after the match, Tsitsipas confessed that he arrived in New York with the illusion of reaching number one, but that now he has wasted a great opportunity. “I was very motivated and excited before the US Open started because I knew that in this tournament I could get closer to number one. It would be very strange if it hadn’t crossed my mind, because it’s something I’ve wanted since I was a child and I know it was my opportunity to take that step forward. Things didn’t go as planned. Sometimes you have to let it go, you don’t need to think about it anymore and not get too confused, but at the same time it’s difficult because you had a great opportunity ahead of you and you don’t want to waste it.”

Despite this setback, the Athenian ensures that he will continue fighting to try to finish the year among the top three. “I think my chances now are a little less. The margin is not as small as it will be after the US Open, but I will keep trying and adding points for the ranking as much as I can until the end of the year. I want to finish the year in the Top-3 and I have more opportunities ahead of me”.

Tsitsipas applauded Galán’s great game, and believes that the fact that he lives at a higher altitude helped him when answering his serves. “My arm was quite tense, nothing came out. My serve was very slow today, but close to 200 km/h. But Galán subtracted very well. I’m sure it has to do with the altitude in the area where he grew up, that has helped him with these things. I thought when I started playing with him that it was because of that. He did a great job and dominated the match. I couldn’t rejoin the game, I was half dead”.

Finally, Tsitsipas was very critical of the game he displayed in the match and hopes to recover soon from this hard blow. “Galán played like a world class and I like an amateur, it’s not nice to say it but it was like that. I was very well prepared, I had trained very well and I played good games against very different players. I felt that it was my moment, and maybe I felt something I have before the game. I’ve never had a good story here at the US Open but I like it a lot in tournaments. I must work on negative thoughts and not let them affect me and get into my head. I’m better than that, I’m a much better tennis player but I haven’t shown it today”.