Seeing his ranking plummet down to No. 67, Stefanos Tsitsipas decided to take a surprising call. He chose to participate in the Munich Open for the first time in his career. This saw him miss his usual stop at the Barcelona Open, a competition where he has reached the final on four occasions. With many big names skipping the event in Munich, Tsitsipas does have a chance of going deep in the singles draw. However, his opening match of the tournament didn’t quite go as planned.

Stefanos Tsitsipas took on Fabian Marozsan in his opening match at the BMW Open. The Greek made a strong start, taking the first set 6-3, but Marozsan responded well to edge the second in a tight 7-6 battle and level the match.

However, the contest was brought to a halt at 2-2 in the third set due to poor light. The decision came as a relief for Tsitsipas, who had already raised concerns with the chair umpire about visibility on court. With conditions failing to improve, the match was eventually suspended for the day.

Both Tsitsipas and Marozsan will return to the court on Wednesday and will resume play from the third set. It is the last of the opening rounds that needs completion and the winner of the clash will be taking on Denis Shapovalov in the Round of 16.

Overall, it proved to be a mixed outing for the 27-year-old in Munich as he failed to settle the match in straight-sets. He was leading the tiebreak in the second set and even reached the match point. However, he allowed Marozsan to get back into the game and the Hungarian made no mistakes in claiming the second set.

Tsitsipas will be aiming to avoid a first-round exit in Munich, especially after he had skipped a tournament where he had achieved reasonable success in the past. His decision to play in the cold conditions of Germany instead of the warm weather in Barcelona, highlights his willingness to try and get used to an unfamiliar environment.

“It’s a new place for me. I’ve never had the opportunity to play here. I’m used to the warm weather in Barcelona. In recent years I’ve played there and done quite well. I received a nice invitation to come and play here. I thought it would be a cold place even before packing my bags, and I wasn’t too wrong,” he had said in a press-conference ahead of the Munich Open.

After a dismal 2025 season and a woeful start to 2026, Tsitsipas is looking forward to improve his form in the upcoming clay tournaments.

Stefanos Tsitsipas continues to struggle in 2026

Having clinched just one title last year, Tsitsipas has had a poor start to his 2026 campaign as well. This year, he has competed in eight tournaments so far. However, he is yet to make it past the third round. The former World No. 3 has suffered early exits in almost every competition and has seen his ranking take a major hit as a result.

Tsitsipas’ season had begun on a dismal note as he got knocked out by Aleksander Vukic in the opening round of the Adelaide International. The Australian Open wouldn’t be much better for the Greek as he got eliminated in the second round by Tomas Machac.

An unexpected straight-set loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in Round of 16 ended Tsitsipas’ challenge at the Rotterdam Open before he got knocked out by Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open.

Tsitsipas’ struggles would continue in the Dubai Championships as Ugo Humbert defeated him in the opening round. The Indian Wells didn’t prove to be any better as the 27-year-old faced another first-round exit, this time at the hands of Denis Shapovalov. This was followed by a third-round loss to Arthur Fils at the Miami Open.

The Greek’s latest setback came at the Monte Carlo Masters where Francisco Cerundolo handed him a one-sided 5-7, 4-6 defeat in the first round. Having begun the year ranked No. 36, Tsitsipas has gone down 31 places already and is now in dire need of improving his results.

Will Tsitsipas finally manage to turn things around at the Munich Open, or will his string of poor results continue further?