The Greek is setting the bar very low at Indian Wells. By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday March 8, 2023
Stefanos Tsitsipas is in Californa to play at Indian Wells. Just don’t expect him to make a deep run.
The third-ranked Greek, fresh off his second major final at this year’s Australian Open, told reporters on Wednesday that he’s basically in rehab mode.
“I am still in recovery,” he said. “I won't be pretending or trying to say that I'm the favorite in this tournament or that I have chances of doing well in the next two tournaments because that will be wrong. So I don't see myself as one of the favorites for the next two tournaments.
“I haven't said this a lot of times in my career, but I don’t think I will be capable of going deep, but so far the main priority is getting my body ready and fixed for the clay court swing.
“I am pretty sure it won't be my best performance over the next couple of weeks. The 24-year-old seems to have made the trip to satisfy requirements set up to discourage players from missing Masters 1000 events. “Sometimes, you know you're given difficult tasks and decisions that you need to take and it's difficult to always act the right way,” he said. “There's a factor of you know, I cannot miss a Masters 1000 Even if I really want to, you know the tour is demanding and these tournaments matter a lot. There are certain rules in place for participation and being part of the these events and I made a deal with myself that I will not be skipping the next two events, that I will commit – I just have to do what I have to do and play to the minimum if that's something that is required.
Tsitsipas says he suffered the injury after making some technical changes to his game in the offseason. Those changes, he says, helped him reach his first hard court Grand Slam final in Melbourne, but ended up leaving him at less than 100 percent.
The Greek has not played since Rotterdam, where he lost in the round of 16 to Jannik Sinner.
“It has been a tricky injury,” he said. “There have been a few changes that I did during the preseason, which certainly helped me keep up with the consistency and play better at the Australian Open swing. And I did enjoy myself very much out on the court. Having seen that sort of transformation within my game. And also technically, you may notice in videos now compared to before that my technique might have changed a little bit and that was part of the whole preseason thing that I was referring to earlier.
“And that had a small impact on my shoulder.” It’s hard to imagine what kind of tennis the Greek is going to play when he faces Australia’s Jordan Thompson in the second round, but tennis fans may not want to bet the house on this match.
“It’s a very unfortunate injury at this time of the year because I had a very good, strong start to the year and I consider a Grand Slam final a good result to start the year,” he said, adding:
“It is important to keep faith in the daily procedure to get back healthy. My shoulder, you know, has had a lot of impact in the last couple of years with the constant playing and week to week competition. I just need to take my time and have the right medical team by my side to help me recover to the fullest and not have complications like this again in the future.”
