{"id":384492,"date":"2026-01-02T23:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/384492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:54:09","slug":"tsitsipas-reveals-urgent-medical-crisis-behind-2026-united-cup-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/384492\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsitsipas reveals \u201curgent\u201d medical crisis behind 2026 United Cup return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennismajors.com\/atp\/stefanos-tsitsipas-who-he-really-is-tennis-majors-79893.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.tennismajors.com\/atp\/stefanos-tsitsipas-who-he-really-is-tennis-majors-79893.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> opened his 2026 season with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/video\/highlights-tsitsipas-makes-statement-start-to-2026-at-united-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6-3, 6-4 victory over Shintaro Mochizuki<\/a> at the United Cup, but the former world No. 3 revealed afterward that his presence on court was far from guaranteed just months ago.<\/p>\n<p>Now ranked No. 36 following a 2025 season plagued by chronic back issues, Tsitsipas admitted he faced a crossroads in his career after a second-round exit at Flushing Meadows. \u201cI got really scared after my US Open loss because I just couldn\u2019t walk for two days,\u201d Tsitsipas said. \u201cWhen things like that happen, you start reconsidering the future of your career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Greek star sought out specialized treatment \u2013 later identified by his mother, Julia Salnikova, as the renowned Dr. Hans-Wilhelm M\u00fcller-Wohlfahrt in Munich in an interview by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports.ru\/tennis\/blogs\/3367918.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sports.ru<\/a> \u2013 to address inflammation in the cartilage sheath of his back.<\/p>\n<p>Tsitsipas : \u201cMy situation was quite urgent\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy situation was quite urgent,\u201d Tsitsipas explained. \u201cI have a lot of faith in the doctor that treated me. He\u2019s considered one of the best. I am really thankful he helped me out because there were a lot of things on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tsitsipas noted that his 2026 goal is physical stability over immediate results. \u201cThe goal of 2026 is to be playing best-of-five matches\u2026 and to be able to come back fresh the next day. Recently that was tough to do. I\u2019m just hoping I get back into this spinning wheel again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His victory, combined with Maria Sakkari\u2019s 6-4, 6-2 win over Naomi Osaka, secured a clean sweep for Greece. \u201cI\u2019m pleased with the way I finished because I really started finding rhythm,\u201d Tsitsipas said. \u201cMy first game was actually pretty awful; I felt completely useless. But once I got a better visual of the corners, I felt my game started penetrating more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>United Cup Group E: Greece def. Japan 3-0 Perth (RAC Arena) \u2014 January 2-3, 2026<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patrickmouratoglou.com\/en\/champion-mindset-pre-order\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"mx-auto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Banner-Social-Media-Facebook-scaled.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"aspect-3-1 mx-auto max-w-full overflow-hidden object-cover md:max-w-xl\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s Singles: Maria Sakkari def. Naomi Osaka | 6-4, 6-2<\/p>\n<p>Men\u2019s Singles: Stefanos Tsitsipas def. Shintaro Mochizuki | 6-3, 6-4<\/p>\n<p>Mixed Doubles: Sakkari\/Tsitsipas def. Hibino\/Uchiyama | 6-2, 6-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stefanos Tsitsipas opened his 2026 season with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Shintaro Mochizuki at the United Cup,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-384492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}