Novak Djokovic about Stefanos Tsitsipas: "He has a great future ahead of him"
Novak Djokovic defeated Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the ATP 500 event in Dubai with 6: 3 and 6: 4 without any problems. After the endgame, however, the world number one spoke in the highest tones of his opponent.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Mar 02, 2020, 01:05 pm
Novak Djokovic had had significantly more difficulties with Stefanos Tsitsipas in some of the previous five duels than in the Dubai final. After all, the young Greek has already beaten the world number one twice. In the last two encounters, however, it was the Serb who managed to keep the upper hand in two sets. The final victory in Dubai was Djokovic's 18th win this year - and not a single loss. After the triumph at the ATP Cup and the Australian Open, it was the third title of the season for the 17-time Grand Slam champion. Stefanos Tsitsipas, however, denied the Serb his second title of the season.
After the final, Novak Djokovic was one thing above all: full of praise for his opponent. "I love the fact that he is more than just a tennis player and that he always strives to learn from experience and understand something new about himself so that he can improve," Reuters quoted the world number one. For Djokovic, this is the quality of a champion.
It is the trait of someone "who surely has great potential to become the world's number 1 and win Grand Slams and be a great ambassador for our sport," continued Djokovic. "He has a great future ahead of me, I'm sure of that," said Djokovic. In the Grand Slams, Stefanos Tsitsipas has so far not gone as desired - only once did the Greek make it to the semi-finals, but in 2019 he had no chance at the Australian Open against Rafael Nadal. The 21-year-old's greatest success to date is undoubtedly the triumph at the ATP finals in the past season.
Despite his young age, according to Djokovic, Tsitsipas is already very mature: "He is very smart, very wise," said the 32-year-old. Stefanos Tsitsipas was not particularly wise at the start of the season at the ATP Cup. The sixth in the world rankings not only fell short of his expectations in terms of play, but the Greek also mentally made a mistake when he even slightly injured his father when he destroyed a racket. The Australian Open did not bring the hoped-for turnaround either; the 21st-year-old was already in the third round against Milos Raonic.
Now the five-time tour winner seems to have found his form: At the ATP 250 event in Marseille, the Greek stormed to his first title of the season, the following week he had to defeat Novak Djokovic in the Dubai final. The world ranking sixth is also doing well, because in March the first two ATP Masters 1000 events of the year are on the program. In Indian Wells and Miami it is now up to Stefanos Tsitsipas to follow the words of Novak Djokovic with deeds - possibly even with a revenge for the defeat of Dubai in the final.