{"id":29881,"date":"2025-04-18T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/29881\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:40:10","slug":"stefanos-tsitsipas-explains-the-biggest-reason-why-he-is-so-good-on-clay-after-he-wins-first-two-matches-in-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/29881\/","title":{"rendered":"Stefanos Tsitsipas explains the ‘biggest’ reason why he is so good on clay after he wins first two matches in Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stefanos Tsitsipas is back playing on a surface he loves and he aims to make the most of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greek player has put a challenging 2024 season behind him and he already has one title to his name in 2025, which came at the Dubai Tennis Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now back on the clay where he has enjoyed success in the past, Tsitsipas endeavours to remind the world of just how dangerous he can be.<\/p>\n

Though Tsitsipas failed to defend the Monte Carlo Masters title<\/a>, the 26-year-old is now in Barcelona and he is one of the favourites to take the title on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Eric Renom\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesStefanos Tsitsipas explains his approach towards playing clay court tennis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> has won five clay court titles in his career so far, three of which have come in Monte Carlo.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was also one set away from winning the French Open<\/a> in 2021, before Novak Djokovic<\/a> stormed back to claim the title in five sets.<\/p>\n

The World number 16 is very adept at adapting his game for the gruelling clay courts, and he explained how his approach towards playing on the surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mindset is to try and you know impose my game by being aggressive,\u201d Tsitsipas told Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want other people kind of you know putting too much of their game and playing on their own terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is something that I try and focus on when I play on clay, is to open up the court well, be patient and not rush too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cClay is not a surface that redeems those that are way too daring and hit way too hard. I feel like you have to kind of be smart about it and now where the limit is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the biggest thing that definitely helps me on clay is being able to use my backhand very effectively and smart in order to use my other best shot which is the forehand. So these two combined leave me a lot of room and gaps to impose my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ\/Belga\/AFP via Getty ImagesWho will Stefanos Tsitsipas play next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tsitsipas began his Barcelona Open <\/a>campaign with victories over the American duo of Reilly Opelka<\/a> and Sebastian Korda<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n

He is now into the quarter-finals, where he will play in-form Arthur Fils<\/a>, a player Tsitsipas has yet to beat.<\/p>\n

Previewing what is set to be a challenging contest, Tsitsipas said of his next opponent: \u201cHe\u2019s someone that has actually climbed the rankings quite fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a very explosive game I feel like my tactic and the way I\u2019m going to\u00a0approach this match is not letting him dictate too much and create his own pace when he\u2019s hitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerating power too often is one of those things that is not going to be easy. It\u2019s going to be sort of demanding from my side to be able to play deep and have him on the stretch most of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor and we\u2019re both competitors, I wish for myself to stay close in the score and have this match pushed to its extremes if that\u2019s possible, that is my mindset walking into this match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stefanos Tsitsipas is back playing on a surface he loves and he aims to make the most of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,17891,79,8730,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-29881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-barcelona-open","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-stefanos-tsitsipas","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114358309772929001","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}