{"id":34082,"date":"2026-01-01T12:04:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34082"},"modified":"2026-01-01T12:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:04:43","slug":"tsitsipas-considered-quitting-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=34082","title":{"rendered":"Tsitsipas considered quitting tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Stefanos Tsitsipas said on Thursday he seriously considered retiring from tennis in the depths of a struggle with serious back pain during much of the 2025 season.<br \/>\nBut the former world number three, now ranked 36th after playing just two Davis Cup matches since a second-round exit at the US Open, said his ongoing medical treatment appeared to be paying dividends.<br \/>\n&#8220;I&#8217;m most excited to see how my actual training responds with regard to my back,&#8221; the 27-year-old said as he prepared to open his 2026 campaign for Greece at the mixed-teams United Cup in Perth, Australia.<br \/>\n&#8220;My biggest concern was if I could finish a match,&#8221; added the 2023 Australian Open finalist, who said the injury haunted him &#8220;for the last six or eight months&#8221;.<br \/>\n&#8220;I would ask: &#8216;Can I play another match without pain?'&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I got really scared after the US Open loss (to Germany&#8217;s Daniel Altmaier). I could not walk for two days. That&#8217;s when you reconsider the future of your career.&#8221;<br \/>\nTsitsipas said that after various medical consultations he was now satisfied with his current care plan.<br \/>\n&#8220;My biggest win for 2026 would be to not have to worry about finishing matches,&#8221; he said, adding that he completed five weeks of off-season training without pain.<br \/>\n&#8220;It makes great feedback knowing you had a pre-season without pain &#8212; I hope it stays that way. I want to deliver for 2026 and the United Cup.<br \/>\n&#8220;I put in the work. The most important thing is full belief that I can come back to where I was. I will try everything to do that.&#8221;<br \/>\nGreece have become regulars in the four-year history of the United Cup, played in Perth and Sydney, with fellow comeback hopeful Maria Sakkari, also a former world number three, joining Tsitsipas in the team.<br \/>\n&#8220;We are here again, with a good team and great spirit. We are prepared for war &#8212; we are Greek. We&#8217;re going big,&#8221; Tsitsipas said.<br \/>\nGreece are grouped with Naomi Osaka&#8217;s Japan and the Emma Raducanu-led Britain.\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stefanos Tsitsipas said on Thursday he seriously considered retiring from tennis in the depths of a struggle with serious back pain during much of the 2025 season. But the former world number three, now ranked 36th after playing just two Davis Cup matches since a second-round exit at the US Open, said his ongoing medical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}