Stefanos Tsitsipas has always got along fairly well with Naomi Osaka, which is why we asked the Greek to give us his feelings about the Japanese star’s latest Grand Slam coming out party in Melbourne. Osaka has now won four of the last six hard court majors and we asked the Greek, after his day of double duty at the ABN Amro in Rotterdam, if he got inspired by what she has been able to achieve in the last few years.
“I’m very proud of her,” he told Tennis Now. “We keep in touch, we talk from time to time. She’s a great human being, even greater on the tennis court, has been showing unbelievable tennis, most of the Slams that’s where she shines.”
Tsitsipas, who is into the semifinals in Rotterdam and will face Andrey Rublev for a spot in the final, says that he’s genuinely thrilled to see Osaka achieving her dreams.
“I’m really happy for her, she’s doing great, it’s really nice to see women’s tennis be taken over by such an inspiring, such a charming player like her. She has everything. She has the charm, she has the personality, the game, so it’s really good for the game to have players like her.”
But the Greek also wanted to make it clear that he knew the real reason that Osaka triumphed in Australia last month: the Souvlaki!
“I also like to think that she won the Australian Open due to Souvlaki that she ate the other day,” Tsitsipas said, a smile growing on his face. “Not the other day, when she was playing the Australian Open. She had Greek food apparently, and I’ll just tell her one thing: I think it was all because of Greek food.”
We asked @steftsitsipas what he thought about @naomiosaka‘s brilliant @AustralianOpen run, and he’s pretty sure Naomi won the because of Greek food 🇬🇷His answer, which was awesome 👇 pic.twitter.com/n1kIsTD9jJ
— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) March 5, 2021