Stefanos Tsitsipas retired with a back injury to exit Wimbledon in the first round, abandoning his match against French qualifier Valentin Royer.
The 113th-ranked Royer was two sets up against Tsitsipas, a former grand slam finalist at the Australian and French Open, when he decided to abandon.
The Greek took a medical timeout at 4-1 down in the first set, having lost the first 6-3, and received treatment for his back on-court.
He was reportedly heard saying “It’s impossible to play tennis like this” as he managed the pain. The 24th seed continued to play after the timeout but after losing the second set 6-2 opted to retire.
The Greek player has recently acquired the help of highly-experienced coach Goran Ivanisevic, who won Wimbledon in 2001.
The Croatian enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Novak Djokovic over nine Grand Slam titles between 2019 and 2024, as well as helping Marin Cilic to his only major victory at the 2014 US Open.
Tsitsipas had said that Ivanisevic could “definitely give me a clear direction of where I’m lacking and where I should be focusing on when it comes to my strengths,” but a premature end to his time at Wimbledon has hit his progress.
Preparation had gone smoothly for Tsitsipas, despite defeat to Alex Michelsen in the second round of the ATP 500 in Halle. The 26-year-old regrouped to feature in two exhibition matches at the Hurlingham Club last week, beating Frances Tiafoe 7-6(9), 6-7(4), 10-7 before defeat to Tomas Martin Etcheverry 4-6, 6-2, 5-10.
But the back injury flared up against Royer and has scuppered hopes of bouncing back after falling down the rankings to sit 26th entering SW19.
He is the second high-profile retirement of Monday’s opening day of play so far, after Ons Jabeur retired having trailed 7-6 (5), 2-0 to Bulgarian world No 111 Viktoriya Tomova when she was forced to pull out.
The Tunisian, a crowd favourite at Wimbledon - where she is a two-time runner-up - was in tears before receiving treatment during a long medical timeout in the first set.
The former world No 2 had looked uncomfortable in fiercely hot conditions out on Court 14 and suffers from asthma, while also enduring breathing difficulties at this year’s Australian Open.
She is unlikely to be the only player struggling in the heat, with temperatures expected to reach 34C at Wimbledon, forcing the All England Club to institute its warm-weather policy. This comes into effect when temperatures exceed 30.1C and means an extra 10-minute break between sets two and three in women’s singles and three and four in men’s singles.
Several seeds have already fallen: ninth seed Daniil Medvedev is the highest-ranked casualty, falling in four sets to Benjamin Bonzi, while Latvin 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko lost a three-set tussle with British No 3 Sonay Kartal.
