Tsitsipas on ATP participation rules for Masters 1000: ‘Sit down with the players and come up with something more logical’

Stefanos Tsitsipas has already said that he was playing with a shoulder injury at Indian Wells, and wasn’t entirely surprised to lose his first match there to Jordan Thompson 7-6 (0), 4-6, 7-6 (5).

He benefited in Miami from a first-round bye and then Richard Gasquet’s withdrawal ahead of their scheduled match, then beating qualifier Cristian Garin 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the round of 32 – meaning he had over two full weeks between the defeat against Thompson and his next match on court.

Ahead of Indian Wells, he had told the media: “I’m still recovering [from the shoulder injury], and I won’t pretend that I have a chance to do well in these next two tournaments, because that would be wrong. I haven’t said it many times in my career, but I don’t think I’m able to go far. The priority is to prepare my body for clay,”

And now in a Tennis Channel interview with Prakash Amritraj, the Greek has spoken more about the pressure he felt to take part in both Masters 1000 events.

“There is a rule in place with the ATP that states that if you don’t play at a Masters 1000 there are certain penalties, such as they take away your best Masters 1000 performance from last year, and you can’t add points to that, which is pretty bad if you think about it,” he said.

“I couldn’t pull out, I had to play. You get penalised and fined on top of that. It’s frustrating to have something like this on top of your injury.”

Tsitsipas: New rules would help with quality of tennis

Tsitsipas added that the atmosphere at Indian Wells and the support from the stands contributed to his decision to play, but emphasised that he thought the ATP should reconsider its rules.

“There were a number of reasons why I decided to play, including the fans in Indian Wells…Let’s put that on the side. ATP definitely has to reconsider those rules and sit down with the players and come up with something a little more logical. Obviously I don’t think they would like players to be playing injured out there. It would help with the level of tennis that’s being played in these big events.”

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