Stefanos Tsitsipas made headlines after his lengthy toilet breaks in the first round earned the ire of his opponent Andy Murray. While Tsitsipas seemed to have shaken off the negativity by the time he played his second round, he had no answer to Alcaraz’s power in the third.
Tsitsipas departed Arthur Ashe Stadium almost immediately after the Spaniard won match point, having been booed by the crowd for taking another toilet break at the end of the third set. When asked in his post-match interview to give his thoughts on the crowd’s reception towards him, the 23-year-old admitted that he can’t please everyone.
But Tstisipas quickly moved on to the ‘accusations’ that he has been facing lately. The 23-year-old was alleged by Alexander Zverev to have received illegal coaching during his toilet break at the Cincinnati Masters, which Tsitsipas claimed on Friday was “the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard”.
The Greek didn’t mention Zverev by name, but he heavily implied that he didn’t think much of the German as a person.
“I took my toilet break as a normal athlete” - Stefanos Tsitsipas on gamesmanship accusations
Stefanos Tsitsipas also insisted that since the rule book didn’t specify any time constraint on toilet breaks, he was well within his rights to take as much time as he needed. The World No. 3 also reiterated that he took a toilet break only to change into a new set of clothes.
Stefanos Tsitsipas then claimed that there were other instances of protocol not being followed too, like players taking extra time between points on their serve. The Greek asserted that, unlike toilet breaks, there was actually a time cap specified in the rules on the time that players are allowed to take between serves.
Tsitsipas added that he was surprised fans had an ax to grind against him for his toilet breaks, and not for the excessive time players take between their serves.
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