Stefanos Tsitsipas reflects after stunning Round 1 Australian Open loss

Number 11 seed from Greece, Stefanos Tsitsipas, lost his first-round match at the Australian Open 2025 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to unseeded American Alex Michelsen.

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Tsitsipas was reflective after his loss.

It was not a case of Tsitsipas underestimating his opponent.

“It was a difficult first-round match. I knew I was dealing with a pretty serious opponent because I’ve played him before, and I have lost.”

“So, I knew coming into this match that things don’t suddenly change. He’s someone that there is reason he beat me in our previous encounter.”

Feeling frustrated

Stefanos Tsitsipas went into the match knowing that he needed his game to be sharp.

“So, I knew I had to be on top of my game to try and win this match. I had a very slow start to the match.”

“In terms of finding my movements and just dominating from the serve plus one, it wasn’t really the way I’m expecting it to work.”

Tsitsipas expressed feeling frustrated that he was not able to perform at his best.

“That led to some frustration and, let’s say, insecurity in terms of approaching my game.”

Tsitsipas reported that he felt that his tennis appetite was hungrier earlier in his career.

“I would definitely say that one thing that stood out the most back then is that I had this hunger to try and make a life out of tennis and to try to have a good beginning in my tennis career and my tennis journey.”

Tsitsipas spoke about his perceptions of tennis over the last couple of years.

“It’s different than it is now. I’ve been quite well-established in the last couple of years, and I have seen the game, and I have seen all variations of games around the tour.”

“I’ve done the tour over and over again, the same circle of tournaments and events. I’ve experienced what it is to be on the ATP Tour. I feel like there was a different energy, a different dynamic back then.”

Too much time to recover

Tsitsipas’ reflections about how his sees his tennis levels now as opposed to several years ago was interesting.

“I would actually say that I’m a better player now than I was back then. So even though I’m losing now and I’m not at my best, I feel like I’m much better as a player than back then where I felt like my shots were not as heavy in terms of topspin.”

“I was playing much more flat and much more through the court.”

Tsitsipas admitted that he does not like having too much time on his hands to prepare for his next tournaments.

“The most frustrating part about losing in the first round of a Grand Slam is that you have way too much time to recover, and I would rather have the other way around where I don’t have enough time to recover.”

“Honestly that’s much, much better in terms of problem-solving. It just sucks in a way that I’ll be around, hanging around, for quite a while now before my next tournament comes in.”

“With my competitive nature, I feel like these type of things are not really ideal for me.”

One upside after his loss is that his tennis girlfriend Paula Badosa successfully navigated her first-round match by defeating China’s Xinyu Wang 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) on the rain interrupted first day.

Stefanos Tsitsipas may now be able to fully support her future matches now that he is out of the singles and did not enter the doubles competition.

Dave Marshall is covering the 2025 Australian Open in Melbourne exclusively for The South African website