Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas fell to a bizarre 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 loss to Damir Dzumhur after which he claimed he “lost to himself” at the ATP Rotterdam Open.
At last month’s Australian Open, the 20-year old Greek dumped tennis legend Roger Federer out of the Grand Slam tournament on his way to the semi finals.
In what was a bizarre game of tennis on Wednesday, how he ended up losing the game from such a strong position still begs belief.
Tsitsipas saved two match points during the game but still went on to lose the match in three sets in what was to be Dzumbur’s maiden victory since October 2018.
After the match, Tsitsipas said:
“I lost to myself, not him. He fools you, waits for you to make a mistake. He stands eight meters behind the baseline and plays with your strengths.”
“He played nothing crazy or special, but you’ve got no rhythm with him.”
The loss must be a frustrating experience for the current world number 12 who has made giant strides to move up the table in the ATP ranking over the last 12 months.
The third seeded Tsitsipas at this Rotterdam Open, with this defeat, has now failed to win three out of the previous four matches since after his huge defeat to Rafael Nadal in Melbourne.
He also lost to Gael Monfils at the ATP 250 tour in Sofia Open before this.
The recent defeats he has suffered in the last one month will not bode well for him as February draws to a close and it is only expected that he will drop even further down the ATP ranking.
Form or a loss of concentration, no one knows but the sooner he gets his act together the better for him.
In another match of the day at the competition, Swiss Stan Wawrinka managed to win another encounter but this will please him no ends as he looks to return to his best. Wawrinka defeated fourth seed Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) to make it to the Rotterdam Open quarter-finals.
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