Tsitsipas was down two sets to love against French qualifier Valentin Royer when he called it off, having earlier received treatment for his back during a medical timeout.
The 26-year-old is a two-time Grand Slam runner-up and former world No. 3, but his form has fallen away over the past 18 months.
He is currently projected to slide to No. 26 in the world rankings after Wimbledon and says he is at a loss about how to cope with his back issue.
“I’m battling many wars these days. It’s really painful to see myself in a situation like this,” Tsitsipas said.
“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 mean, I feel completely – 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.”
Tsitsipas recently started working with Novak Djokovic’s former coach Goran Ivanisevic.
He says they have had a “great time” together but his injury is preventing him from playing his best tennis.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas (R) is consoled by Valentin Royer at Wimbledon on Monday
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“I feel like even if he (Ivanisevic) gives me the most amount of confidence in the world, if I don’t feel comfortable,” the Greek player said. “If I don’t feel good with myself and my body, then I can’t really show anything.
“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. 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 in 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.”
Tsitsipas appeared close to winning a first Grand Slam title when he made the French Open final in 2021 and then the Australian Open final in 2023.
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Watch as Djokovic crashes Sabalenka’s press conference with hilarious training observation
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However, since the start of 2024 he has only made one major quarter-final.
Asked whether surgery could be an option for his injury, he said: “No, surgery would definitely not be an option, and the damage has been done already.
“It’s very unfortunate, because I remember saying to myself that something bad might happen, and I had a small burnout in that particular part of the season when I played Davis Cup and had to go to China a few weeks later.
“I remember saying that something bad might happen if I played for so many weeks in a row. I played a lot of weeks in a row
“I didn’t do well at the US Open, but I still played a lot, practiced a lot. So that was the time in the period that that happened. So just to show you that the tour can be very taxing on your body.”
