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World No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas was recently asked how he felt about the experience of playing football with Novak Djokovic after his second-round win at the 2024 Indian Wells Masters.
Having received a first-round bye, Tsitsipas was in red-hot form during his opener against French qualifier Lucas Pouille as he came through 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round in Indian Wells. Following his victory, the Greek sat down for an interview with Tennis Channel, where he was posed with a rather interesting question by host Prakash Amitraj.
"Who's the better soccer player out there, you or Novak?" Amitraj quizzed Tsitsipas.
The above question was a reference to the clip of Novak Djokovic scoring a goal past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the grass area of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden that went viral on Friday (March 8).
In response, the 25-year-old said that he could've tackled Novak Djokovic just as he was about to score, but refrained from doing so as the latter wouldn't appreciate it.
"Not in a position to comment yet on that, I think we'll have to play a few more matches with Novak," Stefanos Tsitsipas said. "He looked quite relaxed while playing those, I was not ready to tackle him yet, which I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate if I did."
He added that he enjoyed the impromptu game and that he looked forward to sharpening his football skills in the near future.
"We had a little of feisty competition going on there with the rest of the guys, it was a lot of fun, actually," he added. "I kind of lost myself within the game, which is something rare outside of tennis, you know... get to sort of play with these guys and play something different rather than tennis. Definitely something I enjoyed a lot, and I hope to do more in the future."
Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to overcome slump at Indian Wells Masters 2024
Stefanos Tsitsipas has not enjoyed good results on the ATP Tour since winning his 10th and most recent title at the Los Cabos Open in July 2023. The Greek has dropped 16 of his last 48 matches, translating into a poor 45.8% win rate.
The lowest points of Tsitsipas' last seven months have been a second-round exit at the US Open and his failure to defend his runner-up points from last year at the 2024 Australian Open. That being the case, the former World No. 3 had picked up a back injury towards the end of the 2023 season, which attributed to his loss of form.
While Stefanos Tsitsipas fell outside the ATP top 10 rankings recently, he will be eager to regroup at this year's Indian Wells Masters. The Greek has made five appearances at the tournament, with his best result coming in 2021, when he reached the quarterfinals.
