'My experience sometimes stabs me': Stefanos Tsitsipas suffers another major blow after Roland Garros early exit

This year's Roland Garros has been the scenario of several men and women's upsets, one of them being the one ocurred on Wednesday, with Stefanos Tsitsipas as the main character. The greek's defeat left himself at a crossroads after registering yet another early exit on a Slam, following a first round lost in lasts Australian and US Open.

Tsitsipas’s sudden upset from the French Open wasn’t just another loss, it marked the continuation of an extended rough patch for the former world No. 3. For the first time in seven years, the 2021 finalist will fall out of the ATP’s Top 20. Stefanos defeat came at the hand of Italy's Matteo Gigante, a survivor of the qualifiers ranked No. 167.

This was the fourth consecutive Grand Slam where he failed to reach the third round, a statistic that would have been unthinkable just a couple of seasons ago. Sitting in the press room after the match, Tsitsipas did not shy away from the emotional toll the loss had taken:

"He handled the pressure moments very well," he stated. "I seemed to be playing immature sometimes during the match, and obviously I'm not extremely happy about that.

"I've got to compartmentalize myself a little bit and try and get back to my old routines, the way I was able to construct certain things and not have things kind of flow out of control the way they did today, " added Tsitsipas.

Injuries have also played a role in Tsitsipas’s recent struggles, with a nagging back pain that force him to retire in Barcelona.

"One thing I have dealt (with) the last couple of years that I wasn't so much facing before were the injuries that popped up," he said.

"Psychologically, they did a lot of harm to me. There are a lot of different things that kind of came up after those injuries which made me feel a little discomforts, made me lose a little bit of hope in terms of how my body can respond to certain situations and the demands of the tour that are constant…”

"I'm just trying to find that balance again of how I can go match after match feeling the freshest that I can and feeling in the best possible shape that I can."

Despite the recent results, Tsitsipas hasn't lost his motivation and will to improve:

"I still want to be the best player in the world and I still want to do great things around this sport that I chose to play. I'm an optimistic person. I don't want to use any excuses or anything like that, so my entire focus is on how can we come to solutions, solve certain things. I just need to use my experience a little bit more wisely, I would say. My experience sometimes kind of stabs me I feel like, instead of utilizing it in a more professional and profound way."

Stefanos Tsitsipas attention now turns to the upcoming grass-court season a the Greek will return to competition in Halle. Although that's not his best surface, a couple of wins in Germany could definitely set him right on track to try to improve last year's second round in Wimbledon.