Global No. 5 Following his Tuesday complaint of feeling sluggish during his French Open quarterfinal defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas says he regrets taking sleeping pills.
The world number one defeated the Greek star in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, and 7-6. Philippe Chatrie won a one-sided match on Court 1.
Tsitsipas says that Alcaraz’s “great” performance was hindered by his own preparation and disturbed sleep cycle.
Tsitsipas stated to reporters, “One thing that I’m going to try to avoid in the future is to have melatonin pills [sleeping pills] and naps before matches because it clearly doesn’t seem to be working.”
Roland-Garros, like the US Open and the Australian Open, has night sessions that, despite creating a great atmosphere under the lights, allow matches to continue past midnight.
“I had some sessions at night. Tsitsipas added, “Not particularly late, but late enough for me to kind of have my sleep schedule ruined, in a way.”
When competing in and participating in major slam tournaments like these, sleep is of the utmost significance, and recovery is of the utmost significance.
“I’ve made the mistake before […] and I had the same score as I did in those first two sets,” the player stated.
With Tsitsipas unable to make an impact on the match, Alcaraz dominated the quarterfinal from the beginning, effortlessly winning the first two sets.
Throughout the match, Tsitsipas had ten more unforced errors than his opponent and committed five double faults to the Spaniard’s one.
Although Tsitsipas, who is 24 years old, rallied in the third set, the damage was already done.
“In the first two sets, it wasn’t really that much fun out there.” He stated, “I felt completely off, like I was sleeping in a way.”
I just wish it would never occur again. It’s awful.
Titanic semifinal
In the semifinals, Alcaraz will face Novak Djokovic in a highly anticipated match on Friday. They have only met once before, in a game that the Spaniard won.
They meet for the first time in a grand slam, and both are in great form heading into the match.
“As I mentioned earlier, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. We both are playing at a great level. Therefore, I really want to find that match. Alcaraz told reporters, “I’m going to enjoy it.”
“It’s amazing to play in a semifinal with such a legend as Novak and make history, you know. Therefore, it will be a wonderful match for me.”
