Stefanos Tsitsipas has been struggling to find his best form over the last year, but he confirmed he is back to his very best with stunning win against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Championships.<\/p>\n
Greek star Tsitsipas<\/a> achieved a career-high ranking of No 3 back in 2021, but he has not been at his best since his win in the Monte-Carlo Masters last April.<\/p>\n After slipping out of the top ten of the rankings, the 26-year-old was struggling for belief as he continued to slip to disappointing defeats, but he will be back up to No 9 in the rankings after his 6-3, 6-3 win against\u00a0Auger-Aliassime in Dubai.<\/p>\n This was the first ATP 500 title of\u00a0Tsitsipas\u2019 career after he lost all of the previous 11 finals he contested at this level and the bigger picture must be the instant impact his new racket has made.<\/p>\n There has been plenty of discussion over what frame Tsitsipas is using after he stepped away from the Wilson Blade as the racket he has used in Dubai does not appear to have any distinctive markings.<\/p>\n It is just a black frame with the Wilson logo emblazoned on the strings and he spoke about the new racket ahead of his final against Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n \u201cComfort is one thing that it brings to my game,\u201d he said about the new racket. \u201cThat is something that I was trying to kind of add into my game.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been receiving some of that extra help. I\u2019ve spoken about how balls and courts have changed over the last couple of years. That\u2019s just me trying to adapt to that. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s let\u2019s say foolish of me not to try and make the change because it\u2019s too obvious that it doesn\u2019t really benefit me or help me. These changes sometimes are necessary because you don\u2019t want to be stuck in the same pattern over and over again.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s something refreshing and a good addition so far. It definitely brings that refreshing feeling, let\u2019s say, and adds a bit of life and enthusiasm, let\u2019s say, to my everyday going to work in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about his changed mentality in Dubai he added: \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of everything. I feel like there are certain things that I have been training for. It sort of pays off in the match. It\u2019s always something that you expect to happen in a match.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the right preparation. It\u2019s where preparation just meets everything: the psychological part, the actual fitness part, how fit you are on the court, and how long you can maintain that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest battle that happens on the tennis court, I feel like it\u2019s the mind. It all goes down to the mind, the way you process information, the way you deal with certain situations, big moments that might emerge during a match. These kinds of things separate us from who\u2019s the best and who\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n Stefanos Tsitsipas\u2019 prize money, ranking, and best match victories<\/a><\/p>\n 3 Masters 1000s, 1 Nitto ATP Finals, but no ATP 500: A look back at the \u2018thorn\u2019 in Stefanos Tsitsipas\u2019 side<\/a><\/p>\n Whatever set-up Tsitsipas had in his racket and string combination certainly worked as he appeared to have more punch on his backhand returns and he produced a high-level of consistency throughout against Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n There were moments during the match when his focus could have dipped and over the last year, Tsitsipas has allowed matches to slip away from his grasp in the key moments.<\/p>\n All that changed in Dubai and he will head to next week\u2019s Indian Wells Masters looking to continue the momentum and after going out in the last-16 in that tournament last year, he has a big chance to challenge for more ranking points when he lands in California.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Jannik Sinner\u2019s big problem revealed after \u2018convenient\u2019 drug suspension<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Stefanos Tsitsipas seals Dubai title as \u2018mystery racket\u2019 gives him huge lift<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stefanos Tsitsipas has been struggling to find his best form over the last year, but he confirmed he is back to his very best with stunning win against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Championships. Greek star Tsitsipas achieved a career-high ranking of No 3 back in 2021, but he has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n