Tsitsipas explains his motivation for the Big 3: "I wanted to play them at least once before they retired".

© AFP

Jules Hypolite

le 22/01/2025 à 20h46

1 min to read

Djokovic Federer Nadal Tsitsipas

Present on the professional circuit since 2016, Stefanos Tsitsipas has had the opportunity on several occasions to challenge the Big 3 (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) and beat each of them at least once.

As a guest on Caroline Garcia's Tennis Insider Club podcast, the Greek talked about his motivation for taking them on when he was still far from being one of the world's best players:

"I remember finishing the season as world No. 2 in the junior ranks. I skipped the Orange Bowl. I went to play professional tournaments.

I was already ahead in terms of ranking. I was in the Top 400, so that was a very good indication.

My expectations at the time were to qualify for a Grand Slam. The Top 400 is a long way off, you still need to improve by about 150 places.

So you have to prepare for that, be good in the challengers and get results. Because Roger Federer was my idol, I really wanted to play him before he retired.

I'd never said this before, but I found myself in a tricky situation where the Top 3 were still playing, but they were no longer among the younger players.

So I said to myself that I wanted to at least play against them before they retired or stopped. I wanted to be in a good situation in terms of ranking to be able to achieve that."