"Usually I’m much tougher": Tsitsipas admits he isn't where he needs to be mentally after US Open exit

Greece’s tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas has admitted that his mental toughness is not where it should have been.

The 25-year-old suffered a shocking defeat in the second round of the US Open against Switzerland’s Dominic Stephan Stricker in a five-set thrilling contest with a score of 7-5, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 on Wednesday.

While talking to the media after the match, the current world number seven admitted that he is lacking in being mentally tough during tough situations, something that was not the case before.

“I was not good enough to deliver and score good results,” he said. “I won’t blame it on anything. It’s just poor performance after Los Cabos. Had a tough transition to Toronto where I dealt with really bad jet lag that I never had such kind of experience on tour.

“Had a very difficult match against Gael. I was actually thinking of retiring in that particular occasion but I went in and hoped that I can do something.

“I struggled with my movement today a lot, and it was the main issue with my performance, I think. Movement wasn’t good at all. Although I did have a match before in which my footwork and my balance was relatively good. I wasn’t able to bring that into today’s match and be as consistent with it.

“I was off-balance, I was getting caught on wrong foot most of the time. The court seemed a bit faster than Armstrong, but that is not an excuse. It’s just that sometimes I had chances to hit the ball a bit, go for it a bit more, and I felt like the ball would skid through the court a bit faster, and it had me out of balance and I framed a few times.”

“Look, it hasn’t happened to me before. It’s the first time for me. Usually I’m much tougher mentally, and I have shown it by coming back. Even though sometimes I get broken serving for the match, let’s say, I still find ways in the tiebreaker or perhaps in the fifth set if that has ever happened.

“Today was not the case. I was not able to bounce back after it. Not as strong. Yeah, just need to be looser.”