Greece defeats Georgia as Basilashvili retires with breathing issues against Tsitsipas

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Sydney’s ATP Cup on Wednesday night when Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashivili began struggling to breathe early in his match with World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, forcing play to be cancelled.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was moving along in his match against Nikoloz Basilashvili but the Georgian experienced breathing issues forcing him to retire from the match.

It was not a particularly long match between Basilashvili and Tsitsipas but it did secure the 2nd point for Greece in the match against Georgia in the ATP Cup in Sydney.

Tsitsipas started off the match in great fashion playing very good tennis and generally moving well. His serve was showing no signs of his elbow injury he had surgery for last month.

That should be a great sign of any Tsitsipas fans heading into the Australian Open. At 4-1 in the match, Basilashvili stopped play mid-game and went to his neck experiencing breathing issues.

A trainer quickly ran into the court and they briefly talked to Basilashvili checking his pulse in the process. They headed back into the locker rooms and after about 10 minutes Basilashvili came back out and retired.

It's not known what the exact issue was but Basilashvili felt unwell to play and upon the recommendation of the doctors retired from the match.