Stefanos Tsitsipas has had a bittersweet clay-court season so far. He won the Monte Carlo Masters and nearly beat Rafael Nadal at Barcelona Open and Novak Djokovic at Italian Open 2021. Against Djokovic, Tsitsipas looked favorite but frequent rain delay spoiled his momentum and he lost despite staying in advantageous positions.

Tsitsipas played Djokovic in the quarterfinals on 14th of May, Friday. He was in blistering form, but rain played a spoilsport and the play was halted when Tsitsipas led 6-4, 2-1. The match was postponed and later played on Saturday morning.

As the match stretched to the next day, Tsitsipas’ adrenaline and momentum faded. The break proved costly for Tsitsipas as it gave Djokovic a chance to regroup and come back at the Greek.

“It was hard to deal with it two days in a row, especially going to sleep that night. There’s a lot of adrenaline,” Tsitsipas said.

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Stefanos Tsitsipas’ tough end to the match against Novak Djokovic at Italian Open 2021

Despite leading most of the match, Tsitsipas was broken on the important points of the second set and Djokovic leveled the match. Later, Tsitsipas saw himself 3-1 up and even served for the match. Yet, Djokovic came back from 5-4 down to win 7-5 in the last set. The second and third set collapse might have not occurred if the match had concluded on Friday itself.

But the rain is in no one’s hand and Tsitsipas also acknowledged it. The situation changed and maybe Tsitsipas was slow in reacting to it than Djokovic.

“It would probably have been different playing in the rain. It doesn’t matter, the situation was the way it was, you can’t change it.”

Tsitsipas was also up against a resolute Djokovic. The Serbian despite on the back foot, had nerves of steel to navigate tough moments. Djokovic played Tsitsipas on Friday and Saturday, later played Lorenzo Sonego in the semifinals on Saturday itself. That was a three-setter again.

Despite playing four hours of tennis in one and a half days, Djokovic played a three-setter final against Nadal and never showed signs of fatigue or stiffness. The World No.1 was certainly prepared for a marathon week at the Italian Open.

Read more: Rafael Nadal Enters the Race to Turin 2021, Novak Djokovic Trails Stefanos Tsitsipas