"Rafael Nadal was mentioning him, he wasn't even in top 300."  Stefanos Tsitsipas revisits 1st impression of Carlos Alcaraz ahead of French Open QF

Stefanos Tsitsipas recently recounted one of his first impressions of Carlos Alcaraz ahead of their quarterfinal clash at the French Open on Tuesday (June 4). The Greek's first encounter against the young Spaniard came at the 2021 US Open, with the then-18-year-old recording a five-set upset over his older opponent.

Tsitsipas has been in good form on the terre battue over the last week. The 25-year-old has dropped only two sets en route to the last eight in Paris. He will resume his rivalry with Alcaraz, who owns a 5-0 positive head-to-head record against him.

Speaking to the media following his fourth-round win against Matteo Arnaldi on Sunday (June 2), Tsitsipas reminisced about how he felt about his upcoming opponent's game when the latter was still finding his feet on the pro tour.

The World No. 9 stated that Rafael Nadal was already hyping up Carlos Alcaraz back in 2019, which made him take the youngster seriously. He also expressed satisfaction with their five-set match at the 2021 US Open, which the then-teenager won 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2), 0-6, 7-6(5).

"I knew when he (Carlos Alcaraz) was coming up as a new player that's he's gonna be good. You could see that. Rafael Nadal was already talking about him at Laver Cup 2019, that was a long time ago. He was already mentioning him back then, he wasn't even in top 300 rankings of the ATP Tour. So I knew he was a serious competitor of mine in the next years to come and of course, I was right about my prediction," Stefanos Tsitsipas said during his press conference in Paris on Sunday.

"That was a great match (USO 2021 third-round match), because we had an amazing battle on Arthur Ashe playing each other. And my goal (in the French Open quarterfinal) is to replicate it, in a way, to get to battle a big fight like this," he added.

Tsitsipas on French Open QF clash with Alcaraz: "I’ll try obviously to do my best and give it a good fight"

Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the net after their French Open 2023 clash

During the press conference, Tsitsipas also claimed that one of his main strategies against Alcaraz will be to "be as annoying as possible on the court", meaning he will do his best to upset the two-time Major winner's rhythm.

"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," he said.

The ninth seed added that was optimistic about his chances going into their French Open rematch. The duo met at the same stage in last year's edition of the French Open, with Alcaraz coming up trumps in straight sets. He 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."