Is the sport altering too quick for Tsitsipas to maintain up? Is Tsitsipas altering how he views the sport? For him, it’s each.

“Yeah, for positive I had a more energizing thoughts again then. It appeared like I used to be hungrier in a very completely different means than I’m now, Tsitsipas mentioned in his post-match press convention. “I’d positively say that one factor that stood out probably the most again then is that I had this starvation to attempt to make a life out of tennis and to attempt to have a superb starting in my tennis profession and my tennis journey. It is completely different than it’s now.”

“I’d truly say that I am a greater participant now than I used to be again then. So although I am shedding now and I am not at my finest, I really feel like I am a lot better as a participant than again then the place I felt like my photographs weren’t as heavy by way of topspin. I used to be taking part in way more flat and way more via the court docket.”

“I really feel like such factor now would not work as successfully because it did again then.”

Now at the moment ranked No. 12 on this planet, Tsitsipas rose as excessive as No. 3 again in 2021. A two-time main finalist, together with at Melbourne simply as current as 2023, Tsitsipas was a part of the unofficial “Subsequent Gen Now” technology of gamers that appeared able to take over from the “Huge Three.”

That included Dominic Thiem, who received his solely main, the US Open in 2020, and has since retired, together with Alexander Zverev, now at World No. 2 who remains to be very a lot within the combine to win his first main. Tsitsipas remains to be ready to do this. However now it’s not the “Huge Three” that Tsitsipas, and others on the tour, should take care of, however now “The New Wave” in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz who’re already a number of main title holders.

Add in a rising crop of youthful gamers who’re hitting the ball a lot larger than gamers only a few years in the past, and plenty of, together with Tsitsipas, surprise the place he’ll slot in amid this sea change within the recreation.

It is most likely not a shock then that Tsitsipas has a sure fondness for “the nice outdated days.”

“Once I got here round in 2018, the sport was very completely different to what it’s now. It wasn’t as bodily. I’ve had wins over Novak (Djokovic), and I felt like I performed effectively, and I did not should sort of exceed probably the most excessive model of myself in that specific match,” Tsitsipas mentioned.

“I keep in mind it fairly fondly and intensely. The sport has shifted extra in direction of a bodily recreation. I really feel just like the margins turn out to be smaller, that means that you simply’re not getting as many free factors. I really feel like innovation has stepped in and allowed gamers to serve even larger than earlier than. I positively put emphasis on that.”

“Once I performed years in the past, I felt prefer it was much less highly effective typically, the sport. It was nonetheless bodily, however it was not as large as it’s now. So I do really feel like energy has taken over, that means that everybody can hit laborious now. You simply should be exact as effectively, mix these two, and you’ve got the final word participant.”

In 2024, Tsitsipas achieved constant outcomes, however nothing to recommend that he can be an element on the majors that 12 months. He additionally endured continued criticism about his backhand, particularly on his return, that many really feel is not efficient because it as soon as was, and it’s now an open secret on the tour for gamers to function a lot as doable to that wing.

On prime of that, Tsitsipas went via a really vocal and public breakup together with his long-time coach and father Apostolos after a gap spherical loss in Montreal to Kei Nishikori that once more raised questions on the place Tsitsipas’ profession was headed.

What occurs this season with the favored Greek who tends to weigh every win or loss via a private philosophical lens, shall be fascinating to look at. Particularly on how he’ll attempt to discover a approach to rise upwards from this current plateau.

However for Tsitsipas, he’d slightly be taking part in than ready round for the following occasion.

“Probably the most irritating half about shedding within the first spherical of a Grand Slam is that you’ve got means an excessive amount of time to get well, and I’d slightly have the opposite means round the place I haven’t got sufficient time to get well,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “Truthfully that is a lot, a lot better by way of problem-solving.

“It simply sucks in a means that I will be round, hanging round, for fairly some time now earlier than my subsequent match is available in. With my aggressive nature, I really feel like these kind of issues are usually not actually preferrred for me.”