Stefanos Tsitsipas believes his Australian Open first-round exit was “karma” after he withdrew from taking part in doubles alongside his brother to deal with singles.
The Greek, runner-up in Melbourne in 2023, misplaced 7-5 6-3 2-6 6-4 to American Alex Michelsen on the second day’s play.
The eleventh seed had been because of play doubles along with his brother, Petros, however withdrew earlier than the match started to guard his singles probabilities.
“It is fairly ironic. My complete [idea] was to attempt to go deep. I knew the very first thing I needed to think about was not taking part in doubles,” Tsitsipas, 26, stated.
“The entire goal was simply to save lots of up on some vitality and be brisker hopefully within the deeper draw of the match.
“I suppose karma hit me. I used to be not in a position to ship or play the way in which I hoped to at this yr’s occasion.”
Tsitsipas has lengthy been tipped as a future Grand Slam champion, having reached the Melbourne showpiece two years in the past and the French Open remaining in 2021, dropping each to Novak Djokovic.
Nevertheless, he misplaced within the first spherical finally yr’s US Open and within the second spherical at Wimbledon.
“Essentially the most irritating half about dropping within the first spherical of a Grand Slam is that you’ve got method an excessive amount of time to recuperate,” Tsitsipas added.
“It simply sucks that I will be hanging round for fairly some time now earlier than my subsequent match is available in.”
