Tsitsipas survives rain, fan favorite Edmund in London opener

In a weather-interrupted opener that spanned two days, 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas overpowered fan favorite Kyle Edmund, 6-3, 7-5, at the Queen's Club on Thursday.

The No. 6-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas is the top seed this week, the first time he has led the field in such a big event. But the young Greek, who has shot up the rankings this season, doesn't want to get too caught up in his new status.

"I don't have to think I'm No. 1, or No. 2," he told press at the event. "Probably some players would think about it when they play against you, but if you think of it too much when you play, like, I'm the No. 1, I'm the one who is the favorite, I'm the one who everybody expects me to win, then you... expect everything to come easier to you.

"I have to play the way I have been playing all this time."

Tsitsipas is having a good season, starting with the hard courts, where he reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, won Marseille, and got to the final of Dubai. Then on clay, he reached the final of Madrid and semifinals of Rome—falling to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, respectively—and went down in five tough sets to Stan Wawrinka at the French Open.

Now, he wants success on the grass-courts, a surface he likes to play on.

"I have great memories from grass," said Tsitsipas, a junior doubles champion and singles semifinalist at Wimbledon, who reached the second week in 2018 before falling to John Isner. "Qualified two years ago and made fourth round last year. So my relationship with grass is pretty good."

But he also acknowledges that it takes some getting used to, having dropped his opener at Stuttgart a week ago.

"It can always be tricky when there's so many different surfaces that you have to adjust and adapt to throughout the year," he said. "I haven't really felt everything that I have to feel here on grass, so I'd say it's going to take quite a while to adjust to those new conditions which I haven't played for a year now.

"You have to concentrate on other things when you play instead of trying to spin the ball a lot or trying to open the court. That doesn't really work on grass. You have to stay low, come to the net, serve well."

Tsitsipas, who is calling on his fellow NextGen players to 'take responsibility' and come up with ways to defeat the legends of the game, wants to also lead the way in doing that.

"I want to do much better than fourth round from last year, so I know it's going to take something more, something more difficult and to overcome people. Players know me. Players know what to expect," he said.

Tsitsipas plays Britain's Kyle Edmund in the first round.