Rafael Nadal- “Stefanos Tsitsipas Deserves To Be Where He is Now”

Yesterday in Rome, World Number two, Rafael Nadal avenged his semifinal defeat at Mutua Madrid Open 2019 by knocking down Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in the last four round of Italian Open 2019.  

And the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal will be taking on his foe, Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Rome Masters 2019. Rafa was interrogated upon Tsitsipas’ sprouting success on the ATP circuit and whether he is surprised with the rate of his growth or not.

“No. Is normal that some young players are there,” Rafael Nadal replied. “What is not normal is don’t have young players there. Stefanos is a good player. Every year we make a prediction with the team which player is going to be at the top 10 at the end of the season before the season start. I put Tsitsipas there”.

This season, the Greek lad, Tsitsipas has reached four ATP finals and has won 30 matches till date, which is the highest on the 2019 ATP Tour. Rafa continued to be wax lyrical about the World Number seven, Tsitsipas.

“I don’t say that because I am a genius, no. I say that is because was a clear candidate to be where he is. He started even better than what I expect. Here we are. He deserves to be where he is now. That’s it,” Rafael Nadal mentioned.

The 20-year-old, Stefanos Tsitsipas has been hitting a home run since the beginning of the season. His run to semifinals of the Australian Open 2019 where he lost to Rafael Nadal and his clay court ventures have put him into the limelight. 

This year, new faces have been emerging in men’s tennis and the upcoming generation are reinventing the sport. In 2019, three NextGen players, Christian Garin, Dominic Thiem, and Stefanos Tsitsipas have pulled off multiples titles.

Also, Daniil Medvedev, Karen Khachanov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Denis Shapovalov have been setting the Thames on fire over the past few months.