Stefanos Tsitsipas says he is still fully confident that he has what it takes to be the world No 1, even after losing the Australian Open final and missing out on a great chance to become a Grand Slam champion and the new world No 1.
On Sunday, Tsitsipas had two massive feats on the line – had he defeated Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final, he would have become a Grand Slam champion and replaced Carlos Alcaraz at the No 1 spot. But now that he has suffered a straight-set defeat to Djokovic, he will be ranked third on Monday.
“I want to max out in what I do in my profession. No 1 is on my mind. It doesn’t come easy, I know that. I got to work harder to make that happen. Today was my opportunity to be a world No 1. I had a better opponent on the other side of the net who did things much better than me.
He deserves that spot currently,” Tsitsipas said, per Sportskeeda.
Tsitsipas improved from No 4 to No 3
“It’s my time to aim for something like this. I don’t see any reason to be lowering my expectations or my goals. I am born a champion.
I can feel it in my blood. I can feel it as a competitive kid that I was when I was young. It’s something that is within me. I want to harvest that, make it bloom, make it even stronger and fonder, work hard towards those goals.
It’s that beautiful number, the number ‘1’, that will make things extremely emotional when converting that,” Tsitsipas added At the 2022 ATP Finals, Tsitsipas had a chance to reach the world No 1 ranking by going 5-0 at the tournament.
But Tsitsipas didn’t even make it past the group stage at the ATP Finals. At the Australian Open, Tsitsipas again had everything in his hands but just didn’t deliver.