Tsitsipas: Djokovic, Nadal and Federer "make you suffer" | ATP Tour

Sometimes you have to tip your hat and say "too good".

Stefanos Tsitsipas may have played the best tennis of his career to reach the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, but did not have a response to the baseline match of Novak Djokovic during the championship match Sunday. The Greek beat Djokovic in his only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting last August at the Rogers Cup, but the world number one had a well-defined game plan in Madrid and followed it throughout the battle.

"He deserved the victory. He played incredible. I could not do much, "said Tsitsipas. "He played very well and tried to move on the pitch. He knew I had a tough match last night, so he took advantage …[made] I run and suffer more and I just do not have any solutions.

"He has the best setback I've ever seen in a human being. He controls it so well. He can play in cross, he can play the same way. And it's very difficult to manage. In the meantime, some players have a good shot, but it's not so regular … that's why it's dominating for so many years. "

Tsitsipas on Saturday scored an unmatched victory over Rafael Nadal to qualify for the final, but the quick turnaround did not help his cause. Since Friday afternoon, he had spent more than six hours on the court between his two singles matches and a semi-final in doubles with Wesley Koolhof, which made the hard tests necessary for the defeat of Djokovic even more difficult.

"Physically, I was not there. My legs were not facing my mind. I could feel fatigue and pain not only in my legs, but all over my body, "said Tsitsipas. "It's physically difficult because you always have to reach your maximum effort and give the best of your time to beat those guys. They just make you suffer. It's really hard to physically cope with that and I think it's the biggest challenge if you play all those guys in the same tournament. "

Despite the defeat, Tsitsipas has many good points to take from Madrid. He reached his second Masters 1000 final, earning his first victory over a top-ranked ATP player and will reach the ATP ranking record of No. 7 on Monday.

With more round-robin wins (27) than any player this season and more tournaments (28) played in the last 12 months than anyone among the top 25, fitness has never been a weak point for Tsitsipas. But having learned what it takes to defeat the world's greatest players in home and away matches, he is determined to become even stronger to take up the challenge.

"It's part of the plan at some point to do better physically, to do everything better, to be more professional … because Djokovic and Nadal are doing well in tournaments week after week," Tsitsipas said. . "I think most of them have won Madrid, Rome, Monte Carlo … the level of consistency is just crazy, it's amazing. I really hope that I approach that. It is one of my dreams and my goals to be consistent with every tournament I attend. "