Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a double blow at the US Open on Monday after being knocked out in the first round by qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan.
The world No.5 was far from his best throughout his 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5, loss to the Colombian who is making his main draw debut at the tournament this year. Tsitsipas produced a costly 57 unforced errors which were two times more than his winner count of 28. He also struggled behind his second serve where he won 45% of the points.
“He played like a world-class player and I played like close to an amateur, not very nice to say that, but that’s what happened,” Tsitsipas told reporters during his press conference.
“I was very well prepared, I was playing very well in practice, had some really good matches against different kinds of players. I felt like the momentum was in my favour, I just might’ve felt a little tense going into the match. US Open, I never really had a good history here but I do like the tournament a lot. Just need to work on the negative thoughts a bit more and not let them affect me and not get in my head, because I’m better than that, I’m a much better player and athlete, but definitely not today.”
Despite his success on the Tour, Flushing Meadows has always been an Achilles heel for Tsitsipas who has never gone beyond the third round of the tournament. In five main draw appearances, he has only managed to win back-to-back matches twice. Coming into this year’s draw, the 24-year-old has experienced mixed results with an early exit at the Canadian Masters before going on to reach the final of the Western and Southern Open.
Tsitsipas’ early exit also removes him from the race to become world No.1. He was one of five players in contention of taking the top spot in New York but had to reach the final to have a shot of doing so.
“I was very motivated and pumped before the US Open started because I knew I could use this tournament to get closer to the No. 1 spot,” Tsitsipas said. “It would be very weird and very unusual if it didn’t cross my mind because this is something I wanted since I was a kid and I know this is my chance now to step it up.
“It just didn’t go as planned. Sometimes you just need to let it go, you don’t need to overthink it, you don’t need to push yourself too hard but at the same time it’s difficult because there’s this open opportunity right in front of you, you don’t want to mess it up, you don’t want to waste it.
“My chances, I guess, are a bit smaller. The margin is not as thin as it used to be now after the US Open but I’m still going to try and add points to my ranking, as much as I can until the end of the year, I really want to perhaps finish in the Top 3… more opportunities ahead.”
The former French Open finalist will exit the US Open with 4810 ranking points. This is almost 1000 less than Rafael Nadal who is in the strongest position to claim the top ranking in a couple of week’s time.
In Tsitsipas’ section of the draw, Matteo Berrettini is the only seed remaining after day one. Maxime Cressy retired from his match and Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo fell in straight sets to Andy Murray.
As for Galen, he will play Australia’s Jordan Thompson in the second round.
