Roger Federer Guided Stefanos Tsitsipas Through his Dark Phase

Published 08/01/2019, 5:28 AM EDT

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World No.6, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost the opening round match at the Wimbledon Championships 2019 against Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano in a thrilling five-setter.

The 20-year-old turned to Roger Federer for guidance on how to lift himself up after his substandard performance in England. He revealed in an interview at the ongoing Citi Open in Washington that he just wanted to spend some time alone in order to reflect on his slump.

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Talking about his shock defeat at the All England Lawn Tennis Club last month, he said, “I thought about this match a lotI was very upset.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas disclosed that he locked himself for three days in his house in London and spent time on his computer and reading books. The Greek gun also revealed the books that he read during his dark phase after the Wimbledon Championships 2019.

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He read ‘the Alchemist’ a novel by Paolo Coehlo, and a biography on his tennis idol and the 20-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer. “I was reading an autobiography by another journalist concerning the life of Roger Federer. One really interesting book about him,” Tsitsipas said. “The details in there are pretty accurate.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas also took a step away from tennis as he went on a two-week vacation before returning to action for the summer hard court season in the USA. “I think that was very important to refuel, recharge my batteries coming in here,” he explained on Wednesday.

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The 20-year-old paired up with Nick Kyrgios in a strange combination in Washington as the two fell just short against the top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the first round.

However, Stefanos Tsitsipas stepped up in the singles event and defeated Tommy Paul 6-3, 7-5 in the round of 32 on Wednesday. He is through to the third round and will face Jordan Thompson tonight. He needs to reach the semifinal in Washington to make a top 5 debut in the ATP rankings, next week.

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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