Stefanos Tsitsipas, who finds himself in Rafael Nadal’s half of the table at Wimbledon, remains very cautious despite the Spaniard’s foot injury.
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas is wary of Rafael Nadal on the eve of Wimbledon, even though he hasn’t played since winning the French Open title to relieve his left foot, as he judges the Spaniard “even more dangerouswhen he has physical problems.
«We’re used to seeing Rafa win a lot of Grand Slams or tournaments, even when he doesn’t look fit to play“, declared Sunday Tsitsipas in a press conference. “I think that’s when his opponents have to be most careful. It’s when he says he can’t play and he has foot problems that I think he’s the most dangerous“, he added.
Nadal, 36, won his 22nd Grand Slam at Roland-Garros in early June after suffering from his left foot. He even had to undergo several legal injections of anesthetic to be able to continue playing and lift his 14th trophy on Parisian clay. “I have a lot of respect for what he did at Roland-Garros, given the state of his foot. It’s like he had his foot broken“, Tsitsipas continued, believing that this kind of achievement made it seem like the Spaniard was almost “immortal».
Stefanos Tsitsipas, in Nadal’s half of the table at Wimbledon, will start on the London lawn on Tuesday against the Swiss qualifier Alexander Ritschard (192nd in the world).
He hopes to do better than last year, when he was eliminated from the start by Frances Tiafoe. “I tried to play on grass as on clay, which was a huge mistake. I hadn’t played a single match before Wimbledon […] It all made no sense“said the Greek, who won his first title on grass on Saturday in Mallorca.