Stefanos Tsitsipas admitted he is wary of “burnout” after booking his place in the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday evening.
Tsitsipas, seeded second in Dubai, edged a close contest against heavy-hitting German Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that lasted two hours and 22 minutes.
When he takes to the court to face British No 1 Dan Evans on Friday, it will be Tsitsipas’ eighth match in 10 days having successfully defended his title at the Marseille Open on Sunday, before hopping on a plane to Dubai.
It follows a similar pattern to 12 months ago when Tsitsipas arrived in Dubai from Marseille, and by the time he faced Roger Federer in the final, it was clear he was struggling for energy.
"I did feel a bit tired when I started the match, I just couldn't put pressure on myself. That's a sign of fatigue. Besides that I still managed to find ways to fight," the Greek world No 6 said after his win over Struff.
"Last year I had burnouts. At some point, mentally, you can't take it any more. You feel like you're unable to process what's happening with a clear picture. You keep doing mistakes that you wouldn't otherwise do.
"I think it's also linked with your attention span and how refreshed you feel in general. So far, I haven't been there since last year. I've tried to manage my matches so that I won't be in the same position again."
Tsitsipas’ energy levels are going to be tested once again when he faces Evans for a place in the final. The world No 31 is enjoying an excellent week in Dubai having eliminated two top 20 players, the most recent being sixth seed Andrey Rublev 6-2, 7-6 in Thursday’s first quarter-final.
“He's been doing well, he obviously deserves his spot in the semi-finals,” Tsitsipas, 21, said of Evans. “I need to be ready for that battle because you don't know what he's going to present and put out there. Just got to be ready, start strong, and take the lead.”
Evans, 29, has enjoyed a strong start to the season, putting together a 11-4 win-loss record and he will climb inside the top 30 in the world rankings for the first time in his career having reached his first ATP 500 semi-final.
“It's great, a good achievement,” Evans said of his ranking milestone. “But hopefully two more matches here to play yet. We'll see where I end up on Monday.”
While Tsitsipas fights against the threat of fatigue, the polar opposite appears to apply to top seed Novak Djokovic, who once again strolled through his latest challenge in Dubai.
World No 1 Djokovic needed just one hour and six minutes to dismantle Russian seventh seed Karen Khachanov 6-2, 6-2 to secure his place in the semi-finals.
It was the first time in three matches this week that Djokovic was required to spend more than an hour on court.
The win extends Djokovic’s perfect start to the season to 16 matches, a run which has helped guide Serbia to victory in the inaugural ATP Cup and a defence of his Australian Open title – his eighth triumph at Melbourne Park.
"The wind was strong today on court, changing directions all the time. It was really tough to get the rhythm for the serve," Djokovic, 32, said. "I wasn't serving as well as I have in the first two matches in terms of first-serve percentage, but the second serve was quite accurate.
"I don't think Karen has played up to par. He knows and he's capable of playing much better than he has tonight. He made a lot of unforced errors, which obviously made my life easier.
"But I think from my end it was a solid, solid performance. I moved well in defence, I was using the variety, the dropshots, always making him guess what is coming next."
He will face one of French pair Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet in the last four, who were playing later on Thursday.
