By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – Stefanos Tsitsipas said he was rediscovering the mindset that once fuelled his best Grand Slam runs after drawing on his past experiences at Wimbledon to seal a 6-1 6-4 6-2 victory over Frenchman Hugo Gaston in the first round on Monday.
Tsitsipas removed his father and coach Apostolos from his team on the eve of the grasscourt major, but did not let the change affect him as he made it into the second round for the first time since 2024.
“I’m missing the way I’ve been playing the last couple of years. And today while I was on the court, I was thinking of the great fights I’ve had previously at Wimbledon,” Tsitsipas told reporters.
“Regardless of the result, I always felt like I was coming into this tournament with a lot of determination, with a lot of love for the grass and always played my best.”
The twice Grand Slam finalist, who has not gone beyond the fourth round of Wimbledon, said he would continue to tap into the past to see where it would take him this time.
“Today’s match was a bit of a throwback mentally of how I started this journey playing at Wimbledon, at the juniors, and trying to go far. I produced really good tennis,” he added.
“I was trying to revisit some of my qualities and some of the ways I’ve been thinking and doing certain things from the past, and tried to apply those in a structural, well-mannered way in today’s match.”
Tsitsipas, who has slipped to 87th in the world thanks to poor results amid a back injury last year, said he was past the issue and looked forward to stringing together a strong run.
“It’s been solved a long time now. The best thing about it is I don’t have to wake up every single day and wonder whether I’m going to be able to play today without any pain,” he said.
“It was the case last year, and there wasn’t a single day I would wake up and be 100% sure that, ‘Oh, we might do it today. I might actually finish a whole tournament the way I’ve been feeling last couple of days’.
“I’ve been feeling absolutely fine the last couple of months … I’ve had some good wins this year, I can confidently again reach finals and week two in big events.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
