Tsitsipas: 'Alcaraz hit too hard'

"Alcaraz hit very hard," Tsitsipas shared after losing 3-6, 4-6 on April 23. "It's difficult to play against Alcaraz right now. He dominates with his power and good angle. You don't know where the ball will fall."

Tsitsipas thinks that his one-handed backhand is also a disadvantage on clay. The Greek tennis player hopes he finds a way to deal with this, like Roger Federer did.

Tsitsipas has good statistics on clay. He won four of the seven finals. All three defeats were at the Barcelona Open, including twice at the hands of Rafael Nadal.

Tsitispas won the Monte Carlo Masters last year, then the Mallorca Championships on grass. But the 24-year-old then lost five finals in a row, including the big two, last year's Cincinnati Masters and this year's Australian Open.

"Two months ago I went through a difficult time," added Tsitsipas. "But now I have a feeling of finding the rhythm of the competition again. Coming back to the final at an ATP event is not easy. I need to keep moving forward, instead of regretting the past."

Tsitsipas will join Alcaraz and most of the top players at the Madrid Masters this week. The ATP 1000 event in the Spanish capital is missing two veterans Nadal and Novak Djokovic, both due to injury. After this tournament, the players have another big tournament, the Rome Masters, to prepare for Roland Garros. Tsitispas once lost the clay Grand Slam final to Djokovic in 2021 despite winning the first two sets.