"My goal is to be as annoying as possible": Stefanos Tsitsipas responds after Carlos Alcaraz reveals plan to "trouble" the Greek in French Open QF

Stefanos Tsitsipas revealed that his plan against Carlos Alcaraz was to be as annoying as possible after Alcaraz said that he wanted to trouble the Greek. The duo will face each other in the quarterfinals of the 2024 French Open.

Tsitsipas defeated Marton Fucsovics, Daniel Altmaier, Zhang Zhizhen, and Matteo Arnaldi to reach the last eight, while Alacarz sailed past the likes of J.J. Wolf, Jesper De Jong, Sebastian Korda, and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Ahead of their encounter, the Spaniard spoke about the matchup during the on-court interview after his fourth-round match. He said that he was looking forward to the match, adding that the Greek was playing well lately.

Alcaraz also said that he had the 'key' against him, insinuating that he had never lost to Tsitsipas.

“I’m really looking forward to playing this match. I love these kind of matches. I’ve seen a lot of matches lately from Stefanos. I know he’s playing great tennis and has a lot of confidence right now. I think I have the key against him. I’ll try to put the shots that get him in trouble. I’ll try to show my best. Hopefully the crowd enjoys as much as I’m gonna enjoy. Let’s see how it’s gonna be,” Carlos Alcaraz said.

Tsitsipas said, in the post-match press conference, that his goal was to be as annoying as possible, adding that he wanted to give a good fight. Assessing his chance, the Greek said that he was in good form on clay courts and hence he had a fighting chance against the Spaniard.

"Well, he has said how he likes playing against me. I have heard him say that in the past. My goal with it is to be as annoying as possible on the court and to make it as challenging as possible. This is my mindset entering the court," Stefanos Tsitsipas said.

"I’ll try obviously to do my best and give it a good fight and he is one of the best for a reason and I really feel like currently, I sit in at a good place and I feel like my chances going in shouldn’t be too low because I have shown good tennis on clay so far," he said.

Looking back at Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas' matches against each other

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz at the 2023 French Open

The head-to-head between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz is skewed in the Spaniard's favor with him leading 5-0. They first met at the 2021 US Open with Alcaraz toppling him in a five-setter thriller.

Next, they faced each other at the 2022 Miami Open with the Spaniard prevailing 7-5, 6-3 yet again. Their encounter at the 2022 Barcelona Open was a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win for Alcaraz.

They met in Barcelona yet again in 2023 in the finals and Tsitsipas still could not get a win with the Spaniard taking the title. Their latest encounter was at the 2023 French Open quarterfinals with Alcaraz winning 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(5).