Stefanos Tsitsipas will play no further part in Wimbledon after he was forced to retire in his opening match due to a back injury.
French qualifier Valentin Royer led 6-3, 6-2 against Tsitsipas, who received a medical timeout in the second set.
During the 74 minutes on court, the Greek looked in discomfort and struggled with his movement and serve, making just 43 per cent of his first serves.
Last week, Jannik Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill said that Tsitsipas had struggled with his back when practising with the Italian.
“It’s tough to describe. I’m battling many wars these days,” the former World No.3 said post-match.
“It’s really painful to see myself in a situation like this. One thing that I absolutely hate doing is retiring or stopping a match, but I’ve never pictured myself being in a situation like this multiple times since the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin a couple of years back.
“Since that time, I’ve been very fragile with my body, and I’ve been battling a war of feeling healthy and feeling comfortable going to the extremes, which has been a difficult battle.
So I really don’t know. I feel like I’m left without answers. I don’t know. I’ve tried everything. I’ve done an incredible job with my fitness. I’ve done an incredible job with my physiotherapy, so I’ve maximised on everything that I possibly can do. Right now, I’m just absolutely left with no answers. I don’t know what to do.”
The 26-year-old holds a 19-13 record on the season and is currently 22nd in the ATP Live Race To Turin, having not made it beyond the third round in any of his previous five events.
“It’s probably the most difficult situation that I’ve ever been faced with, because it’s an ongoing issue that doesn’t seem to be disappearing or fading off as much,” Tsitsipas said on his back issues.
“Myself, as a person, I have a limit at some point, so I’ll definitely have to have my final answer on whether I want to do stuff or not in the next couple of months.
“This is going to be hard, but if I see it going in that trajectory, there is no point at competing. If I’m not healthy, and I’ve talked about health so many times, if health is not there, then your whole tennis life becomes miserable.”
