Stefanos Tsitsipas found an excuse in his sleeping pills for his three-set defeat by top seed Carlos Alcaraz in their French Open quarter-final.
He also noted that his pre-match naps, and late matches are the main reason for the loss, not the Spaniard’s sensational quality.
Alcaraz pulverised the fifth seed to take a 6-2 6-1 5-1 lead with a jaw-dropping display before a brief comeback by Tsitsipas forced a third set tiebreak which the Spaniard won as well.
“One thing that I’m going to try to avoid in the future is have melatonin pills and naps before matches because it clearly doesn’t seem to be working. I don’t think he played any crazy tennis. I allowed it to happen. I don’t think he played his best match. He played great. I mean, I don’t think he played exceptional, but he played great.”
“I root for the young kids” 💭
Disappointed Tsitsipas applauds Alcaraz.#RolandGarros
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 6, 2023
“He played tennis with few errors and that was enough to beat me. I had some late-night sessions. Not super late, but late enough for me to kind of have my sleep schedule ruined, in a way,” he said.