After having surgery on his right elbow in late 2021, Stefanos Tsitsipas (4th in the world ranking) returned to the courts in the ATP Cup to defend the colors of his country and did an analysis of how his body and his game responded.
As a precaution, the world number four decided not to participate in the first singles match against Hubert Hurkacz (9º) and started directly in doubles, where he managed to rescue a victory together with Michail Pervolarakis (399º).
Already at the crossroads with Argentina, in a battle of two hours and 43 minutes against Diego Schwartzman (13º), the Greek admitted feeling happy despite the defeat: “It came out better than expected. It was a very tight match and I enjoyed it. I was able to land a few punches that I would have feared two weeks ago, so I’m moving in the right direction.“
Despite this, the pain in the right elbow was still present: “I feel some pain, it is normal. I hit more serves than in the entire previous month. Today I went a lot further. I felt fatigue at the end“, he commented at a press conference after the duel with him Small.
However, the final key against Georgia left him a little bitter taste for how things turned out: The abandonment of Nikoloz Basilashvili (22º) when they were only 4-1 in the first round and the defeat in doubles did not allow him to make a final analysis of his arm and tennis level: “I didn’t really get a chance to play a lot of games. I only had two singles matches, not even two, one and a half, less than half. I can’t really say how much better at this point. I need to play a little more tennis to assess my situation“.
With a bye week ahead, Stefanos Tsitsipas will focus for the first big challenge: the Australian Open.
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