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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected some of the world's best athletes, including tennis ace Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek recently opened up about his struggles in his podcast on Spotify.
Tsitsipas conceded that he was not in the best frame of mind when the coronavirus outbreak began last year. With countless restrictions in place and normal life coming to a standstill, the Roland Garros runner-up found it difficult to cope in the initial stages.
But the pandemic taught Tsitsipas a valuable lesson; life is all about adapting to different situations.
“I never imagined going through something in my life like a pandemic," Tsistipas said. "Now I am in a better state mentally, I was not in the beginning. It's all about adaptation; that's how I see it. Once you adapt to your conditions, then the human brain and body have this ability to adapt to any circumstance and in any way."
"Personally, I struggled a lot with this," he added. "I never imagined that it would affect me so much, in a way that I hadn't seen coming."
Despite the numerous challenges he's had to deal with, Tsitsipas is positive that things are moving in the right direction. The Greek feels it is the beginning of the end in the battle with the virus.
"Now I am confident," Tsitsipas said. "Right now, I see the light at the end of the tunnel; things are improving. It's so nice to finally see a solution and make our day-to-day lives much easier and have better access to different types of things that bring happiness and joy. Things are looking better, and things look a lot better on the ATP Tour. "
Stefanos Tsitsipas is not the only top player to have struggled amid the pandemic
Besides Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem is another top ATP player who has admitted to struggling amid the pandemic. The 2020 US Open champion's battle with the pandemic is well-known.
While recuperating from a knee injury in April, Thiem shared his feelings with Austrian newspaper Der Standard, where she spoke about the emptiness he had felt living in a pandemic.
“There is a certain emptiness, though it’s not dramatic," he said. "Last week, I didn’t even watch the football Champions League because it’s such a tragedy."
“Huge parts of the job are missing," he added. "Corona has taken away the good things starting with the travelling, the free movement. The bad things remain. It is difficult to play week after week under these circumstances."
Mercurial Frenchman Benoit Paire has also expressed his frustrations with the pandemic on numerous occasions. Earlier this year, Paire said that playing matches in empty stadiums and following COVID-19 protocols had made his life miserable.
