Stefanos Tsitsipas Contemplated Retirement Amid Injury-Plagued Campaign
The athlete entered the previous US Open as the 26th seed.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has revealed he pondered ending his career because of severe spinal pain during the 2025 tennis year.
The 27-year-old, who has reached a career-high ranking of world number three, finished as runner-up to Novak Djokovic at both the 2021 French Open and the 2023 Australian Open.
Now ranked as the world's 36th best player after a limited schedule since his early exit in New York in August, he stated continuous medical care has begun yielding positive results.
"I'm most excited is to observe how my training holds up under regular practice concerning my injury," said Tsitsipas.
"The biggest fear centered on if I could complete a match," the athlete continued, explaining the pain plagued him "for the past half a year or more."
"I would wonder, 'Am I able to play another contest without discomfort?'"
"I became truly frightened after the defeat at the US Open [to Germany's Daniel Altmaier]. I could not to walk for 48 hours. That is the moment start reconsidering the path ahead."
He also reported being content with his current recovery plan after finishing an extended period of pre-season training without any pain.
He is scheduled to compete for Greece at the team event, where they face Naomi Osaka's Japan and the British team led by Emma Raducanu. The competition will be held across Australian cities in early January, the week preceding the season's first major.
"The greatest victory for 2026 would be to not have concerns about finishing matches," he expressed.
"It provides fantastic feedback to know you had a pre-season without pain – I hope it continues. I want to deliver in 2026 and at the team championship.
"I have done the work. The crucial element is complete faith that I can return to where I was. I will try all means to achieve that."
