Stefanos Tsitsipas says rediscovering his love for tennis has helped him shed the anxiety and self-doubt that clouded recent seasons, as the Greek star prepares to face seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic in the second round at the All England Club on Wednesday. The 27-year-old, now ranked No. 87 in the world after an injury-disrupted spell, spoke candidly following a straight-sets first-round win over Hugo Gaston.

The Mindset Shift

Tsitsipas described a deliberate move away from chasing results and toward finding fulfilment in competing. 'I think it all comes down to enjoying the game, not looking too far away to see if there are going to be any victories or wins. Just actually focusing on each and every game that you get to play out there,' he said.

The former World No. 3 admitted that pressure to constantly reshape his game had often felt at odds with his natural instincts. 'I feel like I have been constantly chasing change and improvement in my game. I feel like sometimes it is not part of my personality. It just doesn't belong to me, even though my coaches or the people around me want me to go towards that other route,' he acknowledged.

The Weight of Injuries and Anxiety

Tsitsipas was unusually open about the emotional and physical toll of recent years. 'Of course (there is) pressure; we all know that it has caused some anxiety from the past, stress, and all of it has been sitting really heavily on my shoulders,' he said.

He revealed that his injury struggles extended to surgeries and multiple hospital stays — hardships he said he never anticipated as a young player. 'I never imagined as a small, little kid that I would be going through life-changing injuries, to be honest, injuries that made me suffer a lot,' he said. 'I had to have surgeries because of those injuries. I was hospitalised a few times. It's all part of the process. I have accepted I'm not the only one.'

Through it all, he said one thing kept him going: 'My love for the game. I love this game.'

Reconnecting with Wimbledon Roots

Tsitsipas said his opening-round performance felt like a mental reset, recalling his junior days at Wimbledon. 'Today's match was a little bit of a mental throwback, mentally, to how I started this journey playing at Wimbledon, playing at juniors, and trying to go far,' he reflected.

He added that the grass courts at the All England Club have always brought out a particular determination in him. 'Regardless of the result, I always felt like I was coming into this tournament with a lot of determination, with a lot of love for the grass, and I always played the best that I knew at the time,' he said.

The Djokovic Test Ahead

Tsitsipas now faces arguably the stiffest second-round assignment in the draw — a match against Novak Djokovic, who has won Wimbledon seven times and remains one of the most formidable grass-court players in history. Notably, this encounter comes as Tsitsipas is working his way back from a significant ranking drop, making the match a high-stakes measure of how far his revival has genuinely progressed.

He said he intends to carry forward the same approach that served him in the first round: 'I produced some really good tennis. I was trying to revisit some of my qualities and some of the ways I have been thinking and doing certain things from the past, and tried to apply those in a structured, well-mannered way.' Whether that renewed clarity is enough to trouble a seven-time champion will be answered on Centre Court on Wednesday.