- Stefanos Tsitsipas has called out the ATP over a Masters 1000 rule
- Tsitsipas withdrew from the Mexican Open in February after suffering a shoulder injury
- He played with an injury at the Indian Wells
Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas has called out the ATP after being forced to play at the Indian Open despite having an injury.
He said that the current ATP rules make it hard for tennis players to opt out of ATP-sanctioned Masters 1000 events.
Tsitsipas withdrew from the Mexican Open in February after suffering a shoulder injury at the Australian Open. Despite being far from full recovery, from the injury, he still played at Indian Wells Open.
He lost in three sets to Jordan Thompson, but he fared better against Cristian Garin in the Miami Open third round this week. He won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, marking his first victory since the round of 16 at the Rotterdam Open in mid-February.
The world No.2 explained while speaking after his triumph in Miami Open said that he took a lot of bravery to play in California.
Stefanos Tsitsipas. Photo/ GH Gossip.
According to ATP rules, tennis players in the top 30 must compete in all Masters-level competitions unless they are injured, and those who miss competitions risk sanctions.
There is a reduction in the quantity of Masters-level competition required for players over the age of 30, those who have been on the Tour for 12 years or longer, or those with more than 600 top-level matches.
“There is a rule in place in ATP that states that if you don’t play any Masters 1000, there are certain penalties such as, they take away your best Masters 1000 performance of last year and you can’t add points to that, which is pretty bad if you think about it,” Tennis 365 reports.
With this in mind, he summoned his courage to play at the Indian Wells in Florida to keep his points intact.
“I couldn’t pull out, I had to play. Also, you get penalised and fined on top of that. It’s frustrating to have something like this on top of your injury and having to think about something like this too,” he added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas. Photo/Netral.News
He pleaded with ATP Tour to be more considerate and talk with players on this matter. Tsitsipas implores that they can come up with something more logical and still maintain the quality and energy of playing tennis in big events.
An arm injury kept him off a few matches in the 2021 season and this wasn’t the first time he was battling an injury.
In January 2022, he castigated a surgeon who told him in November 2021 that he could never play tennis after his elbow injury. Yet, he managed to sail through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
“I’m pretty sure my doctor is watching right now,” he stated. “He has been sending me texts after every single game. We both didn’t expect for me to participate in the Australian Open. It was not part of our plan, he told me ‘I don’t see you playing in Australia’, but I proved him wrong,” he stated at the time.
A year later, he is still going strong and maintaining a healthy ATP ranking.
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