Former world number three Pam
Shriver believes that recent results have had a negative impact on Greece’s
tennis star
Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The 25-year-old has had a tough
few months on the court where he faltered in the early stages of the Grand
Slams as well in the other ATP events as well.
Shriver, who played in the final
of the US Open back in 1978, recalled how she struggled during her days against
the likes of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Monica Seles
and stated that Tsitsipas is going through a similar phase where he is dishearted
with the achievement of younger players such as Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, and
Jannik Sinner.
“A lot of turbulence. A lot of on
and off court social media posts; lot of stuff about the coaching situation;
dating [Paula Badosa],” she said. “I know what it’s like to be a chaser and not
quite get there. It was exhausting. I had about eight or nine years where I was
somewhere between three and seven in the world, trying to chase down Chrissie,
Martina, then Graf and Seles, and I eventually hit the wall around when I was
27-28.
“So, whether or not that’s
happening to Tsitsipas now, and kind of like [he’s] disheartened now, seeing
the quality of Alcaraz, Sinner, and even Shelton.”
Tsitsipas started the year
brightly where he played in the final of the Australian Open and lost to the
current world number one Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic with a
score of 6–3, 7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–5).
However, from there on, things did
not go as planned and in the last two Grand Slams of the year —Wimbledon and
the US Open — the current world number six faced an early exit after losing in the fourth and
second rounds, respectively.