Australian Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas with an idiosyncratic on-court interview
Stefanos Tsitsipas started the Australian Open with an impressive three-set win over Gilles Simon . In the subsequent on-court interview, however, the Greek was less convincing.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 09, 2021, 03:28 pm
It was a strong exclamation mark that Stefanos Tsitsipas sent towards the competition on Tuesday afternoon European time. The Greek, who with Gilles Simon had actually been assigned a very difficult opening hurdle, swept the French off the field in three clear rounds and showed some of the attributes that made him the unofficial ATP world champion at the end of 2019.
Correspondingly self-confident, Tsitsipas set off immediately after his impressive performance to dismiss the duty of the on-court interview. When Jim Courier asked if he had expected such a clear issue, the world number six didn't really find the right words: "I obviously didn't expect it to be that easy," said the 22-year-old and received quite mixed reactions from the Australian audience.
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Amidst the laughter of many, there were also some boos, which addressed the (unintentionally) disrespectful formulation of the Greek. Visibly at a loss, Tsitsipas started another attempt - again with fairly manageable success: "I feel like I've screwed it up now," said the sixth in the world rankings before he spoke about the match again. "I think I played a great, spectacular match from start to finish." Again this was greeted with laughter from the stands.
Courier brings Tsitsipas back on track
The Greek, visibly embarrassed, wanted to escape the situation completely: "What am I doing here anyway? I'll go," said a meanwhile bright red Tsitsipas who still didn't seem to find the right words. "I don't know what his tactic was." - laughter. "That was the last thing I expected: to play in Melbourne and to be laughed at by everyone," said the 22-year-old, who repeatedly offered to leave.
Now interviewer Jim Courier came to his rescue (finally) and tried to get the Greek back on track with another question. With success, Tsitsipas tried his hand at short, concise answers and finally managed to bring about a somewhat "normal" question-answer game. Apart from this small embarrassment, the world number six can look back on a highly successful day anyway - and after the strong performance, look at the second-round opponent Thanasi Kokkinakis with a broad chest.