ATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas revealed that "tennis wasn't important" to him for part of the 2024 season.
World No. 11 Tsitsipas finished a season outside of the world's top 10 for the first time since 2018 after a challenging 12 months for the Greek star.
The 26-year-old reached the quarter-final stage of just one Grand Slam – the French Open – and won just one title, at the Monte Carlo Masters in April.
Tsitsipas failed to qualify for the ATP Finals for the first time since 2018 and, outside of his Monte Carlo victory, made the last eight of just two further Masters 1000 tournaments.
A difficult year also saw the Greek split with his dad Apostolos as his coach, following a tense mid-match exchange between the two during his loss to Kei Nishikori at the Canadian Open.
Speaking on Instagram, Tsitsipas admitted he had "difficult moments" throughout 2024 and had "never imagined" he would get to that stage in his career.
He said: "If I have to say something about this year, it's that I'm very proud of what I'm doing now, because my mind has had some very difficult moments this year and I wasn't sure if I could continue playing tennis.
"Tennis wasn't important to me anymore, going to tournaments wasn't important to me anymore. It's been complicated because I never imagined I'd get to this point, but I'm proud of myself for the way I've handled the situations – because it hasn't been easy.
"The most surprising thing was going to Monte Carlo and winning the title there again because, inside, I wasn't 100% sure if I could do it because of everything that was happening."
Before 2024, Tsitsipas had been a consistent force towards the top of the men's game for a number of years.
The Greek reached a career-high of world No 3 in August 2021 and made his first Grand Slam final at the French Open that same year, also reaching the 2023 Australian Open final.
After breaking into the top-10 in 2019, Tsitsipas did not finish a season ranked lower than sixth between 2019 and 2023, ending both 2021 and 2022 as the world No 4.
All eyes will be on whether the 26-year-old can now turn around his fortunes in 2025.
Tsitsipas will start his season Down Under and Australia has been a happy hunting ground for him; alongside reaching the Australian Open final in 2023, he was also a semi-finalist in 2019, 2021, and 2022.
However, he was beaten in the fourth round earlier this year by Taylor Fritz.
