US OPEN

September 6, 2026

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Press Conference

B. SHELTON/S. Tsitsipas

6-2, 6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Good tournament for you. His serve can be a handful. What was your vision of it tonight?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Well, he has a lot of spins and slices. He's difficult to predict. That was something that was very difficult to deal with today. It can kind of come from anywhere with any kind of spin.

He's a very good server. He knows how to use his left hand very smart. It was difficult having to deal with most of his serves.

I've played him in the past. He has improved, certainly. It was a very different dynamic of the match than last time. He played better than me, so he deserves the victory.

Q. You tweeted about the one-handed backhand. Wondering, do you really have any feelings around that, it's something that's dying in the game?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's not me having feelings. I think it's a fact. I'm stating the obvious. If you compare to the 1950s or 1960s, you see a massive decline on the one-handed backhand.

I think I took a look, the 1950s, I think 97% or 98% of players were playing one-handed backhand. It's literally like 2% now, the 3%. So it has reverted the other way around of what it used to be.

Look, tennis will always be tennis. Regardless of whether there are single-handers out there or double, it doesn't really matter. If the tour is dominated by double-handed backhands, it doesn't really matter. It's just that I feel it's such a traditional classic shot, that it's such a shame to lose a shot like that.

Is there something you can do about it? I guess yes. Is it the end of the world if no one plays a one-handed backhand? No. Tennis still goes on the way it is.

Q. Aesthetically, do you feel there's something sad about that?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: I feel like tennis used to have a lot of personalities, a lot of different personalities back in the day. We still have personalities, like even the young guys today. They differ from each other, they have their own style, they have their own way of hitting the ball.

I feel like tennis used to be played with so many different variations of style, and that variation of style has narrowed to one particular style these days where everyone is kind of playing the same. You know, courts have become slower. Everyone is revolving around kind of the same game.

You don't see many personalities on the court in regards of we used to have the serve-and-volley players back in the day. We used to have those that used to play a specific different way, counter-punchers, defenders.

Now it's narrowed to one style of game. I think that's what makes tennis so interesting and what used to make it so interesting is because you had those that played a specific way and others that played another way.

It's kind of the same with the one-handed backhand. Very similar.

Q. You said a few days ago how you used to always dream on playing a night match on Ashe in sort of a later round. I think you said semifinals or something, and this wasn't obviously semifinals, but it was a night match on Ashe against an American, big atmosphere. Curious how you experienced it and what you thought also playing an American in that environment?

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: It's a great feeling. Regardless of the loss today, it's something that you can take as a positive, you know. Not everyone gets to play on a big court like that.

You know, I do have a champion mentality, and of course I demand more from myself. Today obviously is a sad day. I would have liked to maybe bring this to a four- or five-setter instead of the way it ended, which is kind of sweet/bitter, because I have had some good wins these past few days, but I feel like it could have ended in a better, more thrilling way.

But regardless of whatever the result or whatever happened out there, I'm still kind of proud and happy of how I managed to find solutions against top-tier players the last couple of days and how I managed to, like, survive pressure moments and thrive in those particular sequences in parts of the game.

So it was nice to see myself kind of be back, feel like I was back to a place that I somehow remember from the past.

And of course there's no greater feeling than playing on Ashe, as I said. Everyone wants to be out there. No one wants to be on Court 18, you know. I don't even know if 18 is an essential court. Is it?

Q. They only go to 17 here. 18 is a practice court.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS: Is the 17 a grandstand? Court 16, let's just say. Court 16.