Stefanos Tsitsipas withdraws from event after retiring injured against Holger Rune

Stefanos Tsitsipas has officially withdrawn from the ATP Finals, following a retirement due to injury against Denmark’s Holger Rune on Tuesday.

Tsitsipas, a 25-year-old tennis player, was trailing 2-1 in his Green Group match and decided to pull out after consulting with a doctor at the changeover.

The Greek world number six, who seemed to be struggling with a back problem, left the court, receiving a few jeers from the crowd inside Pala Alpitour in Turin, Italy.

In Tsitsipas’ words, “It kills me not to be able to finish this tournament. I’m really gutted that I wasn’t able to finish the match. It’s a shame also not to give that spot to someone else to at least try and do something with it. Unfortunately, I felt terrible on the court. I did what I could do in the best possible way to be ready and fit for this match, but it didn’t work out for me.”

With his withdrawal from the tournament, number one alternate Hubert Hurkacz will replace him for his final match against Novak Djokovic.

“For sure it was very unfortunate,” 20-year-old Rune said. “Even in the first service game you could see he wasn’t serving anywhere near full like he can, I knew something was off.”

Djokovic is now able to secure a spot in the last four with a win over Jannik Sinner later on Tuesday.