"My comments were never a complaint and never meant as criticism" - Tsitsipas backs up prior claims surrounding Golden swing while attempting to silence critics

With the Golden swing coming to a close, a number of talented tennis players made the trip over to South America to play on the clay courts in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago. However, a large number of the top players skipped these tournaments in favour to persevere on hardcourt, with Stefanos Tsitsipas already having his say on it.

The Greek opted to play in Europe and in the Middle East over traversing to South America, explaining to CLAY that financial reasons played a part in the decision making. “I’ve never received good offers to go there; when the financial gap is big, you really have no option but to stick with what supports your career,” he stated.

In turn, this take was touched upon by many people in the tennis world. That included Francisco Cerundolo who has been the number one seed for the three South American tournaments, winning the title on home soil.

“If they don’t want to come here, then don’t come,” he commented at the Chile Open. “They can choose whatever they want, play the schedule they want. The good thing about tennis is that the calendar is flexible, apart from the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000,” the South American No. 1 said. “After that, everyone chooses the 500s and 250s they want to play, wherever they feel most comfortable.”

The former world number three has got a lot of critics from this take, many of which following in what the Argentine said with the Golden swing mostly looked over by many of the players on the ATP Tour, not all just for financial reasons.

On Instagram, Tsitsipas attempted to calm the situation down as he once more shared his two cents on the debacle. “Over the last days I've seen a lot of discussion around comments," he began writing. "I made about scheduling tournaments and appearance fees, so I want to clarify things in a simple and honest way.”

He spoke of his love for playing in South America and retracted any sign of criticism. “First of all, I truly enjoy playing in South America. The passion of the fans there is special and I have a lot of respect for the tournaments and the culture around tennis in that region. My comments were never a complaint and never meant as criticism.”

He backed up his opinion on appearance fees and how crucial they are to players. “On the ATP Tour, players outside of prize money have very limited ways to support their careers financially. The reality is that ATP 250 and ATP 500 events are often the only opportunities where appearance fees exist. Because of that, scheduling decisions are sometimes influenced by those factors."

Tsitsipas disclosed that he is not the only one with this view. "This is not unique to me. It is a standard model followed by many players, especially those competing at the top level.”

The 27-year-old concluded by trying to de-escalate the tension which originated from the original comment. “I was simply answering a question about why my calendar sometimes looks the way it does. I was explaining something that is common knowledge inside professional tennis, not expressing negativity toward any country or tournament. I have great appreciation for every place I compete in and I hope to play in many different regions of the world in the future as well.”

Now this period of the tennis calendar is over, the players on the ATP Tour for the most part will have one thing on their mind: Indian Wells. The first Masters 1000 tournament of the year is a huge opportunity for players to collect some well-needed points and gain some momentum with the Miami Open closely following in suit.

For Tsitsipas, it is a huge opportunity to get back on track after a dreadful spell. A 13-place drop in the rankings thanks to him unable to defend his 2025 triumph in Dubai has seen him plummet down to world number 43. He will look to claw away this harrowing gap back to the top 32 and beyond, wanting to get back to the level he boasted a couple of years ago when he was challenging for the biggest titles on a regular basis.