Stefanos Tsitsipas withdraws from Halle

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• ATP Tennis

Top-ranked Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas won't be kicking off his grass season this week as he has withdrawn from Halle. Tsitsipas, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world, is coming off a runner-up finish at the French Open.

Tsitsipas, who ended runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the French Open final, made his lone Halle appearance in 2018. Back then, Tsitsipas beat Lucas Pouille before losing to Denis Kudla in the Halle round-of-16. Tsitsipas learned about the death of his grandmother just before the French Open final.

Tsitsipas blew a lead in the French Open final.

Tsitsipas was up by two sets but failed to close out the match as Djokovic won in five sets to capture his second French Open title. “What I learned today is that no matter what, in order for the match to be finished you have to win three sets and not two,” Tsitsipas said.

“Two sets doesn’t really mean anything. It’s still one away of winning the entire match," Tsitsipas said, per Tennis Majors. “(I) started playing really short. I felt like my rhythm was off. I really don’t know why.

It was very strange considering that I started finding my rhythm, finding my shots, my movement on the court was perfect, and suddenly just felt cold and out of it. It was difficult to readjust. I felt like I kind of lost my game a little bit.

“I really wish I could understand why things like this happened and evolved. But I was trying to figure it out during my game. It was difficult to come up with something. It’s very unfortunate; very sad in the same way because it was a good opportunity.

I was playing good. I was feeling good. Yeah, I lost an opportunity to do something better today”.