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World No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas will miss his country's Davis Cup Group II tie due to a recurring foot injury. Team Greece, who are up against Lithuania, will take the court without their star player this weekend.
The 23-year-old's father and coach Apostolos Tsitsipas gave a statement to local media on Friday, where he revealed that the injury has been troubling his son for a while now.
"This injury was present throughout the US tour, at the US Open, in Toronto, in Cincinnati and at the Olympics," Apostolos Tsitsipas said. "Specialized measures were taken to deal with this problem, but it was considered necessary to rest (after the US Open) for two weeks. Stefanos came here with the belief that he will play, of course."
Davis Cup is an event that most players look forward to playing in. It offers them an opportunity to represent their country, which is quite rare in an individual sport like tennis.
Given the stakes involved, Stefanos Tsitsipas tried hard to recover from his injury. His father even asserted that if the World No. 3 was fit to play, he would step on the court.
"Stefanos has been recovering all this time," Apostolos said. "Today he hit the field for half an hour, he tried things. He knows his body very well and I think he will make the decision, to say that he is ready to do what he needs to do the next two days."
However, the Davis Cup put out an announcement a few minutes ago that Stefanos' younger brother Petros would take the court for the first singles match of the weekend, against Ricardas Berankis. That indicates Stefanos Tsitsipas hasn't regained full fitness in time, and also that he will miss the entire weekend.
Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to recover quickly and bounce back from his recent losses
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was having an amazing 2021 until the last couple of months, would be greatly disappointed by the recent turn of events.
After winning his first Masters 1000 title at Monte-Carlo, the Greek went on to reach his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros - where he lost to Novak Djokovic despite being up by two sets to love. Tsitsipas' run of poor performances started soon after that.
The 23-year-old was sent packing from Wimbledon at the very first hurdle, suffering a shock defeat to Frances Tiafoe. He then lost in the third round of the Olympics as well as the US Open, which were sandwiched by a couple of semifinal showings at Toronto and Cincinnati.
The US Open ended up being particularly tough for Tsitsipas, as he faced severe backlash for taking extended bathroom breaks in his matches against Andy Murray and Carlos Alcaraz. With less than two months left for the 2021 season to end, Stefanos Tsitsipas would be eager to recover as soon as possible and finish his career-best season on a high.
