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 on account of play doubles together with his brother, Petros, however withdrew earlier than the event started to guard his singles probabilities.
“It is fairly ironic. My entire [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 objective was simply to save lots of up on some vitality and be more energizing hopefully within the deeper draw of the event.
“I suppose karma hit me. I used to be not capable of 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 last in 2021, shedding each to Novak Djokovic.
Nonetheless, he misplaced within the first spherical ultimately yr’s US Open and within the second spherical at Wimbledon.
“Probably the most irritating half about shedding within the first spherical of a Grand Slam is that you’ve manner 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 event is available in.”