Stefanos Tsitsipas is prioritizing ranking points more than titles, says he'd get the COVID-19 vaccine only if it becomes "mandatory"

Stefanos Tsitsipas is hoping for a deep run this week in Cincinnati before shifting his focus onto the US Open. Coming off a semifinal finish in Toronto, the Greek will begin his campaign in the American city against either home hope Sebastian Korda or Serbia's Laslo Djere.

In the pre-tournament press conference, Tsitsipas spoke at length about his career goals and the importance of accumulating ranking points. He also gave his reasons for why he hasn't taken the COVID-19 vaccine yet.

Tsitsipas began by stating how important it is for him to play "good tennis" at every tournament he enters. The 23-year-old further emphasized that he isn't aiming to win every title at the moment, but instead wants to go deep into tournaments and gather as many ranking points as he can.

"My top priority is getting far into tournaments and playing good tennis," said Tsitsipas. "I have said it: I'm not aiming for titles, I'm not aiming to go and win every single one of them."

"I want to get to the stage of a tournament where I'm able to get a lot of points so I can finish within my goal this year," he continued. "I want to get to that. Obviously I will be very happy if something extremely good comes out of it, I won't say no to that, and I will work towards that. But the starting point is where the big points are."

The 23-year-old also revealed that his initial goal for the year had been to break into the top three of the rankings. Now that he has reached there, Tsitsipas wants to maintain his position until the end of the season.

"No. 3 is a number that is very significant and definitely adds some value to the efforts you put in recent times to get there," Tsitsipas said. "It kind of pushes me to sustain that, to want to go the extra mile in the next tournaments."

"That was my initial goal from the beginning of the year, to make it into the top three," he added. "Now the second phase of that goal is to remain there and consistently add points week in and week out and have it close that way at the end of the year. I think that the very next step would be the No. 1 spot, which I hope I can get to one day."

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas was also asked for his preference between the World No.1 position and a Major. The Greek responded by pointing out that winning a Grand Slam would anyway give him enough ranking points to strengthen his bid for the top ranking.

"I feel like winning a Major can give you so many points, so much confidence, that eventually you're going to make it to No. 1," Tsitsipas said. "But my answer is it would be a Grand Slam, let's say. Yeah."

"It hasn't been made mandatory to compete, so I haven't done it" - Stefanos Tsitsipas on COVID-19 vaccination

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Towards the end of the presser, Stefanos Tsitsipas gave a rather controversial take on the COVID-19 vaccine.

Several tennis players have already taken the vaccine, but the likes of Novak Djokovic, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev have insisted on being given a choice in the matter. And when Tsitsipas was asked on Monday whether he was lookinging to get vaccinated soon, he replied that he would only do so if that became a "mandatory" requirement for players to be able to compete.

"I haven't. No one has told me anything," Tsitsipas said. "No one has made it a mandatory thing to be vaccinated. At some point I will have to, I'm pretty sure about it, but so far it hasn't been mandatory to compete, so I haven't done it, no."