Australian Open 2025
Dates: January 12-26 Event: melbourne park
Coverage: Live radio commentary on Tennis Breakfast from 07:00 GMT on BBC 5 Sports Extra, plus live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app
Stefanos Tsitsipas believes his first round exit at the Australian Open was “karma” after he stopped playing doubles alongside his brother to focus on singles.
The Greek, runner-up in Melbourne in 2023, lost 7-5, 6-3, 2-6 and 6-4 against the American Alex Michelsen on the second day.
The 11th seed was due to play doubles with his brother, Petros, but withdrew before the tournament began to protect his singles chances.
“It’s quite ironic. My whole (idea) was to try to go deep. I knew the first thing I had to consider was not to play doubles,” Tsitsipas, 26, said.
“The goal was just to save some energy and hopefully be fresher in the deeper draw of the tournament.”
“I guess karma hit me. I couldn’t perform or play as I expected in this year’s event.
Tsitsipas has long been considered a future Grand Slam champion, having reached the Melbourne final two years ago and the French Open final in 2021, losing both to Novak Djokovic.
However, she lost in the first round of last year’s US Open and in the second round at Wimbledon.
“The most frustrating part about losing in the first round of a Grand Slam is that you have too much time to recover,” Tsitsipas added.
“It just sucks that I’ll be hanging around for quite a while before my next tournament comes around.”
At Melbourne Park, world number one Jannik Sinner opened his title defense with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) and 6-1 victory over Chilean Nicolás Jarry.
Novak Djokovic begins his bid for an independent record 25th Grand Slam singles title later on Monday, and Nick Kyrgios also returns to tennis.