Jo-Wilfried Tsonga expects to be sidelined for four weeks with an ongoing arm injury, but does not know exactly when he will return to competition.
The 29-year-old Frenchman, who has withdrawn from the Australian Open, told Le Figaro, "I had an idea of it for a while. I knew it would be complicated to go to the Australian Open."
It may take a lot of time or it may take less," he said. "It is difficult for me to give a return date as it's not even up to me to give it. It is more up to the doctors who let me come back or not."
Tsonga said that, if not for the Davis Cup final, he would have stopped playing when he experienced the injury in Tokyo. Though the problem improved when he had a pain-killing injection before the Paris Masters, it returned just before Davis Cup, and while he had another injection, it was not as effective.
Tsonga then went to participate in the International Tennis Premier League (ITPL), but defended his decision to take a large appearance fee and play. "By going to the ITPL, I did my job," he said. "Starting with the moment the doctors told me I could not aggravate my injury, it was important to me to go play there. I don't get a salary. I have to win my income."
The only thing I could have done to play the Australian Open, is not to play Bercy or Davis Cup or the ITPL. Not play at all."
Tsonga is a former Australian Open finalist.