Stefanos Tsitsipas has truly gone from a player who was on the cusp of achieving a legendary career to an unfulfilled potential. His poor 2025 season took another unfortunate turn at Wimbledon. A guy who was once called to be the savior of men’s tennis had to retire from his opening round match against French qualifier Valentin Royer.
It seemed like the appointment of Goran Ivanisevic would work out well for Tsitsipas, but nothing has clicked so far for him. The Greek player was two sets down before throwing in the towel. The score was 6-3, 6-2 in less than an hour.
Tsitsipas was seen as uncomfortable on the court throughout. The Greek player was hardly bending his back while serving, which was the biggest indicator of his injury. He said in his post-match press conference (as reported by Wales Online), “It’s tough to describe. I mean, I’m fighting many battles these days. It’s really painful to see myself in a situation like this. 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 maximised everything that I possibly can do.
“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 at 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.”
The physical problems for Tsitsipas were there before he struck a ball at Wimbledon. Jannik Sinner‘s coach, Darren Cahill, had informed the media that Tsitsipas seemed to have struggled with a back problem while hitting with the Italian on one of the courts. Sinner will be in action on the second day at Wimbledon.
It should be noted that Tsitsipas’ girlfriend, Paula Badosa, has also battled chronic issues in the last few years of her career. The Spaniard had informed the media about her chronic issues on her Instagram account. She was also knocked out of the first round at Wimbledon. Badosa had reached the Australian Open semifinal earlier this year, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. But she couldn’t replicate that form on grass.
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