Stefanos Tsitsipas retired with an injury after just three games of his second match at the ATP Finals on Tuesday, handing Holger Rune victory.
Tsitsipas, the 2019 champion, was trailing 2-1 in the opening set when he had a lengthy conversation with his trainer before slowly getting to his feet, shaking his head and walking over to shake Rune’s hand.
That was after just 17 minutes of play and led to boos from the crowd in Turin - which instead had to settle for an exhibition match between alternates Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz.
Tsitsipas, who lost to home favourite Jannik Sinner 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday, had cut short a practice session on Friday due to an apparent physical issue but the Greek player said he was “absolutely fine.”
Rune also lost his opener 7-6 (4), 6-7 (1), 6-3 to top-ranked Novak Djokovic but the Dane now tops the green group ahead of Djokovic’s match against Sinner.
“For sure not the way I wanted to win. It is very unfortunate,” Rune said. “You could see in the first service game, he was not serving as full as he can.
“For sure, something was up and when he called the physio I knew. It’s a long season, I wish him all the best.”
Tsitsipas also withdrew from the tournament in 2021 after losing his opening match.