'There Is No Point': Tsitsipas Questions Tennis Future After Wimbledon Retirement
NewsWednesday, 02 July 2025 at 19:35
Stefanos Tsitsipas recently made brutally honest comments that detailed how much he has been struggling mentally and physically during the last few years.
Tsitsipas' latest setback came at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. He retired from his opening round match against Valentin Royer because of a lower-back injury that has caused him repeated problems.
The former ATP Finals winner hoped to perform well at Wimbledon with his new coach, Goran Ivanisevic, who won the 2001 title at SW19. Ivanisevic also had a successful period with Novak Djokovic, who did not mind him working with another ATP player.
His hopes at Wimbledon ended quicker than he would have liked. Tsitsipas' emotional retirement in the opening round came after he gave a completely open interview with a few journalists before the tournament.
The Greek No. 1 detailed his struggles with anxiety on and off the court. That means he does not feel like himself out on the court, making it challenging to compete effectively against good players week in and week out.
"The last couple of years, especially the last two years, I feel like I have been very stressed and anxious, and I only realised that now that all of this is really adding to me and it just doesn't feel like me when I'm out on the court."
"So I just need to manage the stress better. It's something that will pop up, something that might happen again, but I need to manage those stressful moments.“I need to manage moments of uncertainty and figure it out on my own. I don't want to have external stuff that are causing those types of things."
When a journalist asked what might be causing his anxiety, Tsitsipas mentioned that the hectic life of a player and consistently being out on the road were contributing factors. He and Ivanisevic have spoken about the topic.
"Well, my life is … I feel like not just my life, I feel like most players' life is chaotic, having to travel from place to place and then switching time zones and going from one place to the other. Doing this for so many years, I think it's quite normal that at some point you're going to reach a place of burnout or a place where you feel like you've had enough."
"I'm a player that has been playing the most amount of tournaments, the most amount of matches, I think. For three or four years, I was the player on the tour that had the most amount of wins in a single season."
"And there comes a moment, me and Goran spoke about it, there comes a moment where you pay the price and you can't have everything in life. Of course, it was great at the time. But internally, you're not aligned and you're not in peace with yourself."
After retiring from Wimbledon, Tsitsipas mentioned the ongoing issue with the left side of his back since 2023, and said there was no point in competing if the problem continues to hold him back.
"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 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."
Tsitsipas was more explicit in the Greek section of the press conference. He plans to give the injury another year, but will retire if his retirement from matches becomes consistent.
"If this develops into something that doesn't let me finish matches, I get my answer there. I mean I won't play tennis again for good."
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