French Open: Greek tragedy for young Stefanos Tsitsipas

Even at an ornamental level, there was something about the on-court speech that Stefanos Tsitsipas gave after reaching his first-ever Grand Slam final on Friday – following his five-set thriller against fellow next-gen Alexander Zverev in the Roland Garros semi-final – that one usually delivers while cradling a trophy. There were tears from Tsitsipas and Apostolos, his chest-clutching father-cum-coach; there were long pauses that allowed the crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier to applaud his rise; there were key phrases such as “childhood dream”.

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Perhaps this was because he knew that the other semi-final between world number one Novak Djokovic and 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal was yet to happen, and the winner of that contest of men with 38 Slams between them would of course be the overwhelming favourite to win the title or perhaps tennis fans (psychoanalysts by nature) were reading a little too much into it. But either way, and to put it bluntly, there seemed to be a finality to Tsitsipas’s teary celebration after his unchartered entry into a second Sunday of a Major.

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Which is a shame, given that Tsitsipas had a quiver full of weapons by the time Sunday arrived. For starters, Nadal was felled only for the third time in this Sixteenth Arrondissement of Paris and Tsitsipas would’ve known the man that had slain Nadal on the two previous occasions did not end up winning the trophy that year. But perhaps more significantly, Tsitsipas’s main weapons included his youth (22 to Djokovic’s 34), his easier route to the final, and crucially, a two-set (7-6, 6-2) lead to begin the final against the Serb.

Had the Greek kept his foot where it was for the first 100 minutes or so for one more set – on Djokovic’s neck that is – he would certainly have become the first lad from his generation to win a Grand Slam (mid-gen Dominic Thiem, winner of last year’s US Open, doesn’t count). And Tsitsipas is well aware that his closest rivals (talent and age) had already threatened to achieve greatness by making the leap before him. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, 25, has already made two Slam finals while Germany’s Zverev, 24, was two points away from winning his only appearance in a Slam final in New York last year.

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Tsitsipas, in many ways, was perhaps even closer than Zverev with his two-set lead against a very tired Djokovic on Sunday. Not only had he had to get through the greatest test of human endurance in this sport – which is to beat Nadal in a best-of-5 match on clay – Djokovic also had to turn around a two-set-to-love deficit to the young Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the fourth round. Couple that fatigue (mental and physical) with being a set away from a fourth defeat in the final of Roland Garros, Djokovic was as good as finished.

Almost. Because soon Djokovic would start doing Djokovic things. Djokovic things – like handing Tsitsipas a set point with a shank only to fight it back with a roaring, 25-stroke rally. Djokovic things – like going 0-4 down in the first set tie-break and making Tsitsipas question his life’s choices by clawing back and sending the fans into a frenzy. Tsitsipas managed to snuff that set out, but he wasn’t so lucky from the third set onwards.

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Last year against Djokovic in the semi-final of the French Open, it was Tsitsipas who showed that he had the fire in his belly by reversing a two-set deficit and taking it to five. Today, it was Djokovic’s turn. This Tsitsipas facilitated by getting broken very early in the third and fourth sets, and to make his over all challenge and difficulty peak, he also summoned the masseur with a bad back. Djokovic wasn’t very pleased with the delay that the medical timeout presented, but he knew enough to take advantage of it – yanking his struggling opponent about from side to extreme side.

Once the misery was over, Tsitsipas looked visibly shaken – almost like he had seen the ghost of what could’ve been. For now, the 2019 ATP Tour Finals (the erstwhile London Masters) remains his biggest trophy; but it has been won by both his rivals in Medvedev and Zverev. And perhaps, in retrospect, it is a good thing that his speech after the semi-final had that clarity to it. Because when it was his turn to speak with the runner-up trophy in hand, a stunned Tsitsipas was largely incoherent.

A lot like the second half of his game on Sunday.

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