Greek sensation Tsitsipas takes a break from social media

Stefanos Tsitsipas played his first round match in Dubai on Tuesday less than 48 hours after winning the Open 13 title in Marseille.

Life has changed so dramatically after his stunning run to the Australia Open semifinal last month that Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 20-year-old Greek sensation, has decided to take a break from social media. 
Having beaten Matthew Ebden of Australia (6-4 3-6 6-3) in a tough first round encounter in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night, the fifth seeded player from Greece admitted that keeping himself away from his phone has helped him remain focused. 
Tsitsipas went into the Australian Open in January as one of the bright youngsters in the game, but a stunning fourth-round win against Roger Federer and another impressive win over the experienced Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarterfinal catapulted him into stardom. 
But Tsitsipas, who played his first round match in Dubai less than 48 hours after winning the Open 13 title in Marseille, said he struggled to cope with the attention following his Melbourne heroics. 
"All the attention was not easy to deal with. I can tell you that. People pay attention now. That's why I turned off my social media and my phone completely. I was so tired by all these noise on the social media," Tsitsipas said during the on-court interview. 
"I think it has helped me win the tournament (in Marseille). I will keep being out of social media for a while," he added. 
Later at the post-match press-conference, Tsitsipas opened up on the issue again, saying he has become much 'more social' person after avoiding social media. 
"I was just sick and tired of all those messages, all those people talking about me. All the notifications I was receiving, like, I felt my brain blocked. I felt like I couldn't process all of that information coming to me," he said. 
"I said that it's enough, I had enough of that. Do it like the old way. Do it like players used to play, 30 years ago, with no phones. I think they were pretty okay," he smiled.
"Yeah, instead of that I started having nice conversations with my friends who happened to be there, going for some good lunch, dinner with them, discussing about different interesting topics instead of being on my phone. 
"I think I was more social that week than ever." 
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com