"Stefanos Tsitsipas is not an overly selfish guy" - Jim Courier defends Stefanos Tsitsipas’s decision to play with back pain at ATP Finals 2023

Jim Courier recently defended Stefanos Tsitsipas’ decision to play his second round-robin match against Holger Rune at the 2023 ATP Finals despite suffering from back pain. He said the Greek was not selfish and that he would have felt in his heart that he had to give it a shot.

The ATP Finals is the season-ending event for the top eight players in the men’s singles and doubles rankings. Tsitsipas, who won the title in 2019, was drawn into the Green Group along with Novak Djokovic, Holger Rune, and Jannik Sinner.

The Greek lost his opening match to Sinner in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. On Tuesday he faced Rune, who was beaten in his first round-robin match by Djokovic 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 6-3.

However, Tsitsipas soon realized that he could not compete and so decided to retire after being down 1-2 in the first set. By doing so, he forfeited his chance to qualify for the semifinals, and was replaced by first alternate Hubert Hurkacz.

In an interview with Tennis Channel, Courier said that Tsitsipas was a very "thoughtful guy" and that he understood the "big picture."

"Tsitsipas is a very thoughtful guy, and he is not an overly selfish guy when it comes to it," Courier said. "He understands the big picture. He wouldn't want to do that to the tournament, but it's what happened."

The former World No. 1 also said that the low-bouncing and fast surface in Turin was very demanding on the body and that it could have aggravated Tsitsipas’ injury.

"I mean, you've got to give it a shot in your heart if you think you can go out there and finish the match. But with the back thing, too, on this really quick, low-bouncing core, it's very demanding on the body. Your reaction time has to be even quicker, and that just puts your body at peril, as we can see," he added.

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"I had to make the difficult decision to do what I did" - Stefanos Tsitsipas on his retirement due to back injury

Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2022 Miami Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas opened up about his withdrawal from the 2023 ATP Finals in Turin after suffering a back injury during his second round-robin match against Holger Rune.

Tsitsipas apologized for his early exit and explained that he had followed the advice of his doctors to try and play. He said that he felt terrible on the court and that he hated retiring from matches.

"I'm really gutted that I wasn’t able to finish the match. It’s a shame also not to give that spot to someone else to at least try and do something with it," Stefanos Tsitsipas said in an interview with ATPTour.com. "My doctors and the countless visits that I had in the past few days suggested that I play, gave me the green light to go and try it for myself."

"I hate retiring from matches," Stefanos Tsitsipas added. "I’m not the kind of person that likes leaving mid-match. It kills me not to be able to finish this tournament. I had to make the difficult decision to do what I did. I kind of knew at that time that I might not be able to go all the way."

This was Stefanos Tsitsipas' fifth appearance in the year-end tournament, where he now has a 6-8 win-loss record. The Greek won in his first appearance at the 2019 edition of the tournament, defeating Dominic Thiem in the final 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-6(4).