Stefanos Tsitsipas was expected to play Hubert Hurkacz in his first match of the new season (ATP Cup). However, the tennis fans remained stunned to learn that Aristotelis Thanos would take his place in the competition.
The injury
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ second part of the last season was dented by an elbow injury. Eventually, the Greek player head quick procedure to correct the issue. It seemed as Stefanos has recovered from his injury, also thanks to some videos where it seemed that the world number 4 was in perfect form.
However, it is now clear that Stefanos’ elbow is still not 100% ready for big matches as he was forecasting. At this point, it seems that Tsitsipas’ chances to have a deep run at the Australian Open are not so great.
We are still waiting for an official statement from Team Greece about Stefanos’ condition. An image of a Tsitsipas’ elbow wrapped in ice was not very encouraging.
Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2022
Currently ranked no.4, the Greek played his last match on the 15th of November 2021 when he lost to Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-4 in the round robin in the Nitto ATP Finals (draw).
Hubert Hurkacz in 2022
At the moment ranked no.9 (career-high), the Pole played his last match on the 18th of November 2021 when he was defeated by Alexander Zverev 6-2 6-4 in the round robin in the Nitto ATP Finals (draw).
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Hubert Hurkacz fought against each other 8 times. Their head to head is 6-2 for Tsitsipas. Previously, the last time when they fought against each other, Hubert Hurkacz won 2-6 6-3 6-4 in the quarter in Miami (Miami Open) in April 2021.
Here are the video highlights.
Aristotelis Thanos in 2022
At the moment ranked no. (career-high), the Greek played his last match on the 2nd of December 2021 when he had to retire when playing against Stylianos Christodoulou in the 2nd round and the scoreline was 7-5 .
Currently, during this season Thanos has a 0-0 match record.
