In the game of tennis, it is the four Grand Slams that are the most prestigious to play in and win every year, out of all tournaments. Although consistency matters, it is the number of Majors wins that can convert a good player into either a great or a legend. The World No.6 men’s player, Holger Rune has opened up about his ambitions and so did Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Rune admitted in an interview that for him, Grand Slams are his biggest priority. At the age of 20, the Dane star is clear about his goals, which is in contrast to what the World No.3 Tsitsipas recently said. Tsitsipas chose the World No.1 ranking over a Grand Slam victory.
Grand Slams over ranking for Holger Rune
Rune and Tsitsipas both haven’t yet won a Grand Slam title, although they are in the top 10 of the ATP rankings. Yet both the players have different approaches to the game. In an interview with EL Universal Deportes a few weeks ago, Tsitsipas was quoted as saying –
“I’ll trade (a Grand Slam) for being No 1. It is definitely something special, it is a sign that you have reached the maximum in your career, and I like it when you are able to maximize everything.
“This way, one day I will be able to tell my grandchildren that I have been No 1. It’s my time to aim for something like this. I don’t see any reason to be lowering my expectations or my goals. I am born a champion. I can feel it in my blood. I can feel it as a competitive kid that I was when I was young. It’s something that is within me.
“I want to harvest that, make it bloom, make it even stronger and fonder, work hard towards those goals. It’s that beautiful number, the number ‘1’, that will make things extremely emotional when converting that.”
Tsitsipas’ comments were the context of Rune being asked at a press conference ahead of the Canadian Open and the youngster disagreed with them. He was quoted as saying –
“Firstly, improvements, on my game, my physicality, because that’s what I can control 100%. And then from there, probably the ranking. But it’s more like the team and the coaches. But me myself, I’m more motivated to win tournaments. I would rather win a Grand Slam and then be sixth in the world, than not win a Grand Slam and then be number one in the world. So for me, it’s about tournaments.”
Largely because of Rune’s response, Tsitsipas has faced severe backlash for his opinion. The top-ranked Greek has neither been World No.1 nor won a Grand Slam till date. But this is not the first instance landing himself in huge trouble publicly and not being a huge favorite of the fans, pundits or the media in general. Here are some other instances in the past –
“I don’t want to say anything bad about Nadal, but he has different routines that cost him a lot in his career, with injuries and I know why these things happen. Djokovic avoided this, his diet is the most incredible in tennis.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas
(via https://t.co/WVg3WMH8uU) pic.twitter.com/Ng8pMx7cQb
— We Are Tennis (@WeAreTennis) July 4, 2023
Your salary is the bribe they give you to forget your aspirations.
— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) April 28, 2022
Feminism empowers people, which is one of the key reasons young people should get involved. It’s a prevalent misperception that feminism is exclusively beneficial to women, and that only women may be feminists. Feminism actually seeks gender equality, not superiority for women.
— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) December 1, 2022
Is Tsitsipas following Djokovic’s footsteps?
Tsitsipas is not the only one with the view that the World No.1 ranking is more precious than winning a Grand Slam. In an interview in June 2023, 23-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic too claimed that as a player, going with the approach of becoming No.1 made him a lot more consistent and actually made him manifest his goals to achieve them. He believes that the No.1 ranking, more so at the year-end is much more difficult than winning a Grand Slam and that defines a player’s greatness.
When Djokovic said this, he was supported largely in the public. This could be due to the fact that Djokovic has won a record 23 Grand Slam titles and been the World No.1 for more than 370 weeks, an all-time record for any men’s singles player so far. On the other hand, Tsitsipas has made it to 2 Grand Slam finals but has never won on any surface. Neither he has made it to the top 2 in the rankings despite having many opportunities in the past when Roger Federer retired, Rafael Nadal was battling through injuries and considering that Djokovic himself is aging.
With Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune expected to carry forward the baton of greatness amongst the youngsters, Tsitsipas might never get to the No.1 ranking in the first place if he doesn’t win a Grand Slam, which fetches a player the maximum number of points. Rune’s comment that players like Goran Ivanisevic, who is Novak Djokovic’s current coach, is more renowned for winning the Wimbledon 2001 title as a wildcard than being the World No.1, might hold true when it comes to most of the top 10 players currently.
