Stefanos Tsitsipas Criticized For Mid-Match Bathroom Breaks
September 1, 2021
Penelope Trent

A first-round match at this year’s US Open Tennis Championships pitted former world number one, Andy Murray, against the current number three seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas. But, it wasn’t his opponent’s foot speed or the speed of his serve that Andy Murray was still dwelling on a day after the match. What had stuck with Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, was the amount of time Tsitsipas, his opponent, took during his off-court breaks. “Fact of the day. It takes Stefanos Tsitipas twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazos to fly into space. Interesting,” Murray posted to Twitter on Tuesday morning, misspelling both the name of his opponent and the Amazon billionaire.

Getty Images/ AFP/ TIMOTHY A. CLARY

On Monday, the third-seeded Tsitsipas had defeated Murray 2-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The match took a turn when early in the fifth set following an off-court break by Tsitsipas – although two off-court breaks are allowed by the rules during best-of-five-sets matches, Murray was enraged when he saw Tsitsipas leaving the court after the fourth set, which Tsitsipas had won. “Why are they allowed to do this?” Murray asked chair umpire Nico Helwerth with exasperation. “Why?”

Getty Images/ AFP/ ANGELA WEISS

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