Ruined sleep schedule, melatonin pills: Stefanos Tsitsipas seemingly points fingers at night sessions for Carlos Alcaraz loss at French Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas has blamed his French Open 2023 quarterfinal loss to Carlos Alcaraz on the melatonin pills he seemingly consumed before the match. Tsitsipas, the 2021 French Open runner-up, was knocked out of the competition by Alcaraz 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old was close to crashing out with just five games to his tally, as Alcaraz lead 6-1, 6-2, 5-2 at one point. Tsitsipas, however, played some fearless tennis from there on, saving a total of five match points over the next few games. Alcaraz finally sealed the win in the tiebreaker.

In the press conference that followed, Stefanos Tsitsipas stopped short of praising his 20-year-old opponent’s form to the skies.

“He played great. I mean, I don't think he played exceptional, but he played great,” the former World No. 3 said.

The Greek then blamed his subpar performance on his ruined sleep schedule and the melatonin pills he had to consume as a result. Tsitsipas seemed to be suggesting he was affected by the scheduling of his match in the evening session.

“One thing that I'm going to try to avoid in the future is have melatonin pills and naps before matches because it clearly doesn't seem to be working,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said.

Tsitsipas then revealed that he made a similar "mistake" during his 1-6, 2-6 Paris Masters quarterfinals loss to Novak Djokovic in 2019.

“I've made the mistake in the past before playing Novak in Bercy one year, and I had the exact same score as I did in those first two sets. So, I feel like melatonin really likes 1 and 2,” he said.

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"I don't want to take anything from Carlos Alcaraz" – Stefanos Tsitsipas after his French Open 2023 loss

Stefanos Tsitsipas further said his sleep schedule was disturbed due to his night finishes. The Greek's previous match against Sebastian Ofner in the fourth-round was a night-session match.

“Schedule has been a little bit difficult the last few days. I had some late-night sessions. Not super late, but late enough for me to kind of have my sleep schedule ruined, in a way,” he said.

He noted that appropriate amount of sleep between best-of-five matches at Grand Slams is of utmost importance for recovery.

“You know, sleep is a very vital important thing, and recovery is "the" most important thing when competing and playing big slams like this,” he said.

The player, however, also insisted that he didn’t want to take away from Carlos Alcaraz’s efforts, despite the negative effect melatonin had on him.

“I don't want to take anything from Carlos. The kid plays well. He deserves to win and everything. Let's just not talk about it. I'm really bummed about it, that it had such an effect on me, and let's move on,” he said.

Stefanos Tsitsipas bettered his last year’s French Open result with his quarterfinal exit this time around. In the 2022 edition, the Greek was seen off by World No. 6 Holger Rune in the fourth round.

Carlos Alacaraz, meanwhile, is through to his maiden claycourt Major semifinal. The Spaniard has now set up a much-anticipated clash with two-time champion Novak Djokovic.