"It's a shame, I feel like the better player" - Stefanos Tsitsipas takes sly dig at Andrey Rublev after ATP Finals defeat

In a must-win round-robin match, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Andrey Rublev on Friday night as the Russian reached the semifinals of the ATP Finals for the first time.

The one-hour and 42-minute match saw the third-ranked Greek convert his only break point of the match in the first set and take the lead. However, World No. 7 Rublev stepped up and broke his opponent thrice over the remaining two sets, finishing with 36 winners. The head-to-head record between the two players stands at 6-5 in favor of the Greek.

Although the 2019 ATP Finals winner, Tsitsipas, praised the 25-year-old Russian in a post-match press conference, he also said something that came as a surprise to many. The Greek star suggested that Rublev won the match with the help of his "few tools." The 24-year-old also stated that he felt like the better player on the court.

"I was serving well. I found the spots, you know? I mean, he's a good returner. Nothing to take away from him," Stefanos Tsitsipas said. "He played a lot of returns in. I tried to mix it up at the end. I didn't really feel threatened. I just wanted to try something new, to see if it might work and throw him off a little bit. Yeah, we had a very long game towards the end where I kept trying new things. I can say things were coming off the racquet pretty good from his side."

"It's a shame. I feel like the better player. I felt like I could do more with the ball today. I felt like I could just be much more creative. I don't even have to say that. I think it's quite obvious. But, yeah, he prevailed with the few tools that he has. He was able to really take advantage of them and win today," he added.

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"That was my goal from the beginning of the year" - Stefanos Tsitsipas on finishing as a top-3 player

Stefanos Tsitsipas is currently ranked third in the ATP rankings

Stefanos Tsitsipas' chances of becoming the World No. 1 by the end of the season were crushed by Novak Djokovic in their first match. The 24-year-old Greek currently sits in the third position but could be replaced by fourth-ranked Casper Ruud if the Norwegian makes it to the finals of the ongoing event in Turin.

In a press conference on Friday, Tsitsipas revealed that finishing in the top 3 was his objective since the season started.

"That was my goal from the beginning of the year, which I was still kind of not fully convinced that I can do it because of my elbow injury at the end of the previous year," Tsitsipas said. "But after having a few good results at the beginning of the year, I thought maybe I can actually do it this year and break into the top 3 again."