THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2026

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/H. Gaston

6-1, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Great win. I think it's the obvious question that's on everyone's mind. Coming into today, was there sort of a point to prove with this win? Also based on the news coming out yesterday on you and your dad splitting your partnership...

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, let me start by saying that I'm missing the way I have been playing the last couple of years. And today while I was on the court, I was thinking of the great fights that I have had previously at Wimbledon, playing some years back.

Regardless of the result, I always felt like I was coming into this tournament with a lot of determination, with a lot of love for the grass, and always played my best that I knew at the time.

So today's match was a little bit of a throwback mentally of how I started this journey playing at Wimbledon, playing at juniors, and trying to go far. I produced some really good tennis.

I was trying to revisit some of my qualities and some of the ways I have been thinking and doing certain things from the past, and tried to apply those in a structural, well-mannered way in today's match.

So I'm just going to continue doing that and see where that brings me.

Q. Is there a specific aspect of that? Which focused area is the most important area?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, I find important my returns and my serve. I feel like these are the first shots that start the rally. When I'm strong behind the return, when I'm strong with my first serve, I feel like opportunities seem to arise and come.

I'm confident with obviously hitting my forehand when there is an important moment or a big moment. I tend to, like, go for my shots and not hesitate too much. So my whole game has been built around offense, taking my chances, and trying to play smart at the same time, because I just don't want to be bombarding balls without thinking too much.

It's a good balance of everything in my mind.

Q. On this road, you have had some great wins and also some really heartbreaking losses. Curious what your process is when you are able to get back to your resilience and move on from one week to the next? Is there anything you do in particular that helps you wake up the next day and pick up a tennis racquet?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: My love for the game. I love this game. You know, I have had some rough moments through this game with some injuries that I would have never seen coming.

I never imagined as a small, little kid that I would be going through life-changing injuries, to be honest, injuries that made me suffer a lot. I had to have surgeries because of those injuries. I was hospitalized a few times.

It's all part of the process. I have accepted I'm not the only one. Other people have gone through the same. I kind of lost my path and route at a certain moment in the past.

It's not so much of a reflection right now that I'm mentioning all these things, but I have been trying to think what has been going on in last couple of years.

I feel like I have been constantly chasing change and improvement in my game. And I feel like sometimes it just, certain aspects of it, is not part of my personality. It just doesn't belong to me, even though my coaches or the people around me want me to go towards that other route, good change that they assess and they think is important for me, it seems to take time to adjust and. You know, the tour is short. There are tournaments being played back to back.

And of course pressure, we all know that has caused some anxiety from the past, stress, and all of it has been sitting really heavily on my shoulders.

Back to your question, I think it all comes down to joy of enjoying the game, not looking too far away to see if there are going to be any victories or wins. Just actually focusing on each and every game that you get to play out there.

Q. Is it more the process than enjoying the process, firstly? On the injury side of things, I know you have had a bad back issue. Historically is that still an issue that might flare up now and then or is it something that's been solved going forward?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's not an issue anymore. It's been solved a long time now. The best thing about it is I don't have to wake up every single day and wonder whether I'm going to be able to play today without any pain.

It was the case last year, and there wasn't a single day that I would wake up and be 100% sure that, Oh, we might do it today. I might actually finish a whole tournament the way I have been feeling last couple of days.

I have been feeling absolutely fine the last couple of months. I can finally say that I can confidently, the way I have been playing at certain times, I have had some good wins this year, I can confidently again reach finals and week two on big events in the future, because the back problem is not anymore there.

Q. A few players have been slipping on the grass. I know you have always been very natural, kind of diving, jumping around on this surface. I wonder how much you think for someone like yourself that's a natural thing, an instinctive thing, and how much that comes from practice and learning how to move on this surface?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: We don't have grass courts in Greece. We don't have any grass courts in Greece. I wish I was Australian sometimes.

I grew up playing on clay. I remember the first time I stepped out on grass was probably when I was 16 years old playing Junior Wimbledon. It was a mesmerizing experience for me playing on a surface I never imagined I would be able to play and at such high level. But here I am, practicing in it, playing, competing on my Wimbledon dream tournament.

Me and grass have a good relationship. I mean, I haven't done incredibly well at Wimbledon of maybe semifinals or quarterfinals or whatever. My best result has been the fourth round. But I have always had a good relationship with grass.

I know some people have been talking about it in a negative way. I find it a new challenge, and I think tennis needs challenges. You need challenges to move forward in life. In my sport, for some people it's grass. I find it as an interesting a little adventure that I get to explore, and I think my game suits really well for the grass court surface. I think we have a really good chemistry of whatever I'm trying to do out there.

And in regards of the surface, I think it's a perfect blend.

Q. How important in embracing grass is learning to slip and fall and not be worried about that sort of thing?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Sometimes I slide on grass. And I know that's unethical and unorthodox, people don't do that. But, you know, if you guys have started doing this, it's kind of a trend, so I'm just looking on them and copying them (smiling).

I have been diving in the past. Haven't done that in a while. It feels good when you dive and you're able to get a ball that no one else would be able to retrieve or get back, so even better when you win the point.

This hasn't happened in a while, but I'm always keen to jump if it's required.

Q. Talking about your own struggles with injuries, and just generally, feels like injuries are really on the rise in tennis, especially men's tennis last couple of years. What do you think that's down to? Maybe specifically a lot of, like, arm, shoulder, wrist injuries. Is that something to do with the way players are hitting the ball in a different way now, maybe the balls, racquet technology, anything like that?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: If anything, for racquet technology has gotten better, not worse.

I think it's overuse. There are a lot of tournaments, there is a lot of training during the year, and the tour has gotten to a point where it's so demanding, not so much for the scheduling, we all talk about the scheduling, of course it's demanding, but the margins have become so small.

And everyone can play tennis today, like everyone can hit the ball and move around the court pretty well. The margins have actually closed and become tinier and smaller than before.

So everyone is, like, constantly improving things and getting better. Like you see players, there are a lot of interesting matches today in my opinion, like a lot of good players out there on the tour.

So I believe, like, when you train so much and when you're constantly trying to improve and when you're playing back-to-back weeks on the tour, it's more than normal that at some point you're going to get injured, or there might be overuse at some point, whether that's your shoulder or your back or your knees, for example.

The best thing about it is that the technology has gotten better, like medically we are much more advanced than we were 20 years ago.