After losing a heartbreaking five-setter to 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Stefanos Tsitsipas quickly headed through the stadium's corridors and into Media Room 1 for his post-match press conference.
He needed little prompting to offer praise for his Spanish conqueror, who is through to the Round of 16 for the first time in his fourth Grand Slam attempt.
"Your thoughts on the match?" the moderator offered, kicking off the Q&A.
"I've never seen someone hit the ball so hard," Tsitsipas replied. "Took time to adjust. Took time to kind of develop my game around his game style."
The Greek called it a "bitter" loss, after feeling in control following a 6-0 fourth set. But he gave great credit to Alcaraz for his performance in the fifth.
"I felt like he played the fifth [set] completely—the way he played the first set basically: careless, going for every single shot. I have never seen someone play such a good fifth set, honestly."
He later added: "I didn't expect him to raise his level so much, especially after having lost the fourth set this way. He was a completely different player."
Even before the match, Tsitsipas called Alcaraz "a potential contender in the future for Grand Slam titles and other big events," a sentiment he repeated on Friday night. While the level of talent across the net was no surprise, Tsitsipas was especially impressed by the Spaniard's consistency in Ashe.
"I was returning pretty deep, applying pressure on my returns," he said. "I don't know how much harder I need to hit my return in order to apply pressure. But he felt to be dealing with it really well, comfortably, hitting winners after the first return of mine, just being so much in control, which was surprising, especially in the fifth set."
Watch: Stefanos Tsitsipas' Round 3 press conference
