December 05, (THEWILL) – Stefanos Tsitsipas has expressed regret about his harsh remarks about Andrey Rublev at the Nitto ATP Finals and apologised for his comments.
In Turin, Rublev defeated Tsitsipas in a match in which the winner advanced to the semi-finals. Tsitsipas claimed after the match that he thought he was the “better player” and that Rublev “prevailed with the few tools he has.”
Two weeks later, Tsitsipas, who placed fourth in the world rankings at the end of the year, has said he owes Rublev an apology. He said: “Andrey is an excellent player. He has a great array of weapons that he uses extremely well on the court. He can hit the ball really hard, he’s sort of like the Marat Safin of the new generation.
“I don’t think he’s limited in his game, I think he’s put himself over many years now on the tour that he’s capable of competing against the best. He’s one of the most disciplined guys out here, who is very professional towards his work. He’s a very funny guy, a very nice soul, I enjoy being around him. He’s extremely friendly and likes to make fun of himself. So if I regret saying that? I do regret saying that, yes.
“It was not very good for me, I was extremely hurt that I wasn’t able to go all the way at the ATP Finals, it hurt me a lot, I tried to let some bad energy out but that wasn’t the responsible or the good way, even if I wanted something out of it, it wasn’t the right way to do it. Definitely, if I would see him I would like to apologise to him for thinking like this about him because it’s definitely not how I think about him in reality.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
