Stefanos Tsitsipas believes his Australian Open first-round exit was “karma” after he withdrew from doubles alongside his brother to focus on singles.
The Greek, runner-up in Melbourne in 2023, lost on the second day of the competition 7:5, 6:3, 2:6, 6:4 to the American Alex Michelsen.
The No. 11 seed was scheduled to play doubles with his brother Petros, but withdrew before the tournament rolled around to protect his singles chances.
“It’s quite ironic. All mine [idea] was to try to go deep. I knew the first thing I had to think about was giving up playing doubles,” said 26-year-old Tsitsipas.
“The whole goal was to save some energy and hopefully stay fresh going deeper into the tournament.”
“I guess karma hit me. I wasn’t able to present or play at this year’s event as I had hoped.
Tsitsipas has long been tipped to be a future Grand Slam champion after reaching the Melbourne gem two years ago and reaching the final of the French Open in 2021, losing both to Novak Djokovic.
However, he lost in the first round of last year’s US Open and in the second round at Wimbledon.
“The most frustrating part of losing in the first round of a Grand Slam is that you have way too much time to recover,” Tsitsipas added.
“It just sucks that I’m going to be hanging around here for a long time until my next tournament comes around.”
Jannik Sinner will begin his title defense later on Monday at Melbourne Park, with Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios also in action.
