"My elbow feels fantastic" says Stefanos Tsitsipas lifting doubt over his Australian Open status

Many wondered whether the Greek would be able to fully recover in time for the Australian Open but the doubt has been removed by Tsitsipas himself who provided a very optimistic injury update during an appearance on Greek TV ANT1. Asked about it he said:

“My elbow is fantastic. I am sure I will be 100% back. The goal is definitely to go even higher. I hope the preparation goes well and that the new year will be three times better than this season."

Asked what prompted him for the quick decision to do the surgery he said:

"In Paris the pain was unbearable so I had to quit from that game, I've never retired in a match - it was very painful for me to let the crowd down and not play that match. But, I had to, it was for my safety, my well-being, and I don't regret doing that. In the last couple of days I have been practicing with a little bit of pain but recently I'm feeling much better than when I started, five six days ago. It's heading toward the right direction and I'm doing everything possible to recover from it."

The motivation for the Greek is clear, he wants to take his game a level higher compared to 2020 where it was fairly high. He said:

"Overall I'm happy with where I stand and I think I'm going to have to take an extra step and try and aim for even higher next year. That will require new fresh goals and also trying to improve in my regards when it comes to becoming more professional and working to find where the one percent lies, or the five percent where I can benefit from it and I will of course have my team to help me get to that five percent that I'm looking for."