Stefanos Tsitsipas offers bleak outlook after Wimbledon pain – 'Life becomes miserable'

An emotional Stefanos Tsitsipas opened up on his fitness struggles after retiring from his opening-round match at Wimbledon. The 24th seed was forced to abandon his match after losing the opening two sets against French qualifier Valentin Royer.

Tsitsipas took a medical timeout at 4-1 down in the second set, having lost the first 6-3. He received treatment for his back on-court but decided to give up after surrendering the second set 6-2.

The Greek player is a former Grand Slam finalist at the Australian Open and French Open but has dropped down the rankings due to injury troubles. He has joined up with coach Goran Ivanisevic, who won Wimbledon in 2001 and previously helped Novak Djokovic to nine Grand Slam titles between 2019 and 2024.

But a back problem derailed his chances at the first hurdle at Wimbledon, prompting an emotional press conference. “It's tough to describe. I mean, I'm battling many wars these days. It's really painful to see myself in a situation like this,” he said.

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“One thing that I absolutely hate doing is retiring or stopping a match, but I've never pictured myself being in a situation like this multiple times since the ATP Finals in Turin a couple of years back.

“Since that time, I've been very fragile with my body, and I've been battling a war of feeling healthy and feeling comfortable going to the extremes, which has been a difficult battle. So I really don't know.

“I mean, I feel completely… I feel like I'm left without answers. I don't know. I've tried everything. I've done an incredible job with my fitness. I've done an incredible job with my physiotherapy, so I've maximized everything that I possibly can do. Right now I'm just absolutely left with no answers. I don't know what to do.

He added: “It creates a lot of frustration, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of whys and how and when.

“It's probably the most difficult situation that I've ever been faced with, because it's an ongoing issue that doesn't seem to be disappearing or fading off as much. Myself, as a person, I have a limit at some point, so I'll definitely have to have my final answer on whether I want to do stuff or not in the next couple of months.

“This is going to be hard, but if I see it going in that trajectory, there is no point in competing. If I'm not healthy, and I've talked about health so many times, if health is not there, then your whole tennis life becomes miserable.”

Tsitsipas, 26, ruled out the option of surgery on the "very tricky injury" on the left side of his back. "It's one of those injuries that you can't be taking lightly, because tennis is a rotational sport, and if you can't rotate, then there's no reason playing it," he added.