Stefanos Tsitsipas is lost. His backhand is a mess, especially when trying to return serve, and his off-court life has taken some brutal hits recently, with some implications from his former girlfriend, Paula Badosa. Maybe the Greek has too much going on in his head to play well.
Against Ignacio Buse at the Mallorca Championships, Tsitsipas played one of the stranger points a tennis fan might see. In the first set, and with Tsitsipas having a break point against the Peruvian, and while playing a rally, Tsitsipas stopped the point, claiming the ball was too soft.
He didn't say the ball had broken, but simply that it wasn't playable because of the softness. The rule is that a point should stop only if the ball was cracked, and Tsitsipas was truly wrong to stop the point. In the end, it cost him. Buse was rightfully awarded the point, and he went on to hold.
Stefanos Tsitsipas's Mallorca Championships meltdown is indicative of his current career overall
That might have been as close as Tsitsipas would come to having a real chance to control the narrative of the match. Each player would continue to hold serve in the first set, but Buse won the tie-break 7-4. In the second game of the second set, Tsitsipas was broken, and the Peruvian would take the set 6-3. He continues on in Mallorca while Tsitsipas goes on searching for tennis answers.
The stunning part is that once the Greek was viewed as potentially having the same kind of career that Alexander Zverev has had. Neither could win majors, and they were part of the debate about the best players never to do so. Zverev, though, won a Grand Slam this year (the French Open) while Tsitsipas is in the midst of a career collapse.
Not all of the problems are on-court, of course. Stefanos Tsitsipas has had a terrible back injury, and the once-happy Badosa situation became a sad mess. Still, his form has been brutal, and he seemingly has no idea how to fix his problems, especially that awful backhand.
He is now 27 years old, but appears to be much closer to the end of his career than the beginning. Tsitsipas is obviously in no kind of form to challenge for major titles, or any titles at all. He does have 12 career titles, and he even won one in 2025, but he has just three over the last three years.
In 2026, he has a record of 16-13, has only reached one quarterfinal (which he lost to Andrey Rublev in Doha), and has been bounced out of five tournaments in his first match. Tsitsipas needs a career reset, and quickly, otherwise he might soon be recalled as a once-very good player who is simply playing out the string.
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