Fomer tennis player Andy Roddick has voiced strong opposition to Stefanos Tsitsipas’ bold statement that an ATP Finals is more important than a Grand Slam.
The Greek pulled out of this year’s ATP Finals during his match against Holger Rune in the group stage, with the Dane leading 2-1. The 25-year-old gave up on any concerns about his health after losing to Jannik Sinner in the first round, but he later said that he was out due to a back injury.
Following Tsitsipas’s withdrawal, Roddick said he would have advised the Greek to end the match early in order to focus on getting well in time for the January Australian Open.
Roddick expressed his thoughts in a recent interview and said: “My opinion is that, if your elbow is beat up, if your back is beat up and you’re down a match already, you’ve got to start thinking about January. Listen, he made the finals in Australia last year, he’s always played well down there.”
He further added: “So if I’m in his team I’m going, ‘Listen is the juice worth the squeeze for this tournament especially as we look forward to next year.’ I probably would’ve leaned towards no, we’ve got to make sure we’re healthy.”
Roddick also brought up the 25-year-old’s controversial recent assertion that the ATP Finals are bigger than the Grand Slam. The Greek was strongly disagreed with by the American, who also doubted that Tsitsipas thought his own ridiculous claim.
Roddick concluded his discussion: “I know he said something ridiculous this week about how this is bigger than a Slam if you win it. I 1000% fully disagree and I don’t even think he believes what he said but I would’ve had an eye on next year, especially if you’re nursing multiple injuries.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2023
Currently the world no.6, Tsitsipas played his last match on the 14th of November when he had to retire when playing against world no.8 Holger Rune in the round robin and the scoreline was 2-1 .
This year Tsitsipas achieved a composed 51-24 record. The Greek has won 1 title in Los Cabos. The Greek got to the final at the Australian Open and Barcelona.