Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the best young talents in tennis right now; he is the second-youngest player in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) top ten rankings. He is currently ranked as the third-best player in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek tennis professional in history according to Wikipedia.
After his first-round victory against Andy Murray at the 2021 US Open, cheating allegations were directed at Tsitsipas from his counterpart. The former World No.1 accused Tsitsipas of taking extended bathroom breaks and receiving coaching during those breaks. These accusations, although are based on something Tsitsipas did during the game, there is no hard evidence to back them up.
Tsitsipas received backlash for his actions, but his coach has denied these allegations as unfounded and baseless.
Background Of the Allegations
During his first-round game against Andy Murray, Tsitsipas took two extensive bathroom breaks, one during the 4th set, and wasted a good 15-20 minutes during each interval. This led to Andy Murray going on a rage spree after the game; he even called out the official in charge of the game.
The former Wimbledon winner then accused Tsitsipas of talking to his coach during the break and cheating his way to the win. www.betting24.fi already had Tsitsipas as the favorite for that matchup.
Murray said that he considers Tsitsipas a great player but had lost all respect for him after what he did during the game.
Prior to this, Tsitsipas was accused of the same violations during a semi-final match against Alexander Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters. Zverev accused Tsitsipas of cheating by talking to his coach after losing a set. He claimed that Tsisipas took his whole bag along with his phone for his break, during which he texted his father, who is also his coach, to take advice on the game.
These two occurrences have left people wondering if there is something actually going on. Tsitsipas has received criticism from various pundits who have termed these actions questionable. Thousands of fans have also voiced their concerns regarding the situation.
The Reaction of Tsitsipas And His Camp
Tsitsipas and his camp have outright denied these allegations; they have provided their justifications against all these actions. Tsitsipas, while reacting to the accusations made by Zverov, said that he had no idea why his opponent would think something like that, calling the claims ridiculous.
While reacting to the allegations made by Andy Murray, Tsitsipas said he did not break any rules or do anything against the set guidelines. He further added if there was anything Murray wanted to talk about, he should do it in person.
“If there is something that he has to tell me, we should speak, the two of us, to kind of understand what went wrong.” The world no. 3 said after the first-round matchup against Andy Murray.
Moreover, Tsitsipas’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou also had his say on the situation. He added that although Stefanos took a lot of time, he didn’t do it to cheat or break the rhythm of the game because it would’ve been foolish for a player who had just won the previous set, which does make a lot of sense.
Is There Any Truth to These Allegations?
The allegations against Tsitsipas are not based on any hard evidence and don’t make much sense. The player is a generational talent and accusing him of such violations can leave a huge mark on his career. There can be a hundred reasons for long breaks; it doesn’t necessarily mean he is cheating or breaking any rules. However, something like this cannot become common; if Tsitsipas keeps taking such long breaks without any plausible cause, the situation should be looked into. Nevertheless, if this doesn’t happen again then it’s clear these allegations do not have any solid backing.
2 comments
“and wasted a good 15-20 minutes during each interval” – I would like to see a proper review of this claim.
To complete the review I’d like to see the number of times Murray, Nadal, and many other mostly defensive players, dragged their feet between points, especially on the return, walking to the net, towel, ace mark etc, commenting everything and anything just to slow down and interrupt their – usually attacking players’ – game. First set against Tsitsipas was super slow from Murray. He’d hit an ace then just stand and wait for 35s before serving. Deliberating or deliberately or both, we’ll never know. Basically the same tactic as Novak with endless ball bounces, or Nadal and others, while returner’s attention slowly disappears.
Also, Murray and many others can easily be counted as “drama kings” when it suits them, where they prop up their emotional state with all kinds of talk and rage, while completely and intentionally disrupting their opponents. All well masked with a particular mistake, net cord, line call and rules, so that nothing can be held against that behaviour, and everyone has to wait out their outbursts only to watch how they were sooo disrupted and angry with the occasion that they went and won 8 out of next 10 points (rolling my eyes..).
It’s all easily visible in U12 level already, and by the time – usually defensive – players are 18+ they already have encyclopaedic knowledge on how to exploit that. What you hear from such a defensive young player when they go to tournaments is that they like to play in the wind or rain, because that disrupts their opponents and different other similar statements that children produce without being really aware. Slowballing, moonballs, dragging their feet, not picking up or sending balls away between points, and of course verbal and emotional drama, “wrong” calls on clay etc.
Murray has a triple Ph.D. and two gold medals in all of that, including endless ball pushing and an artificial hip, so it’s fairly comical to hear from him in this particular case.
“he is the second-youngest player in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings.” Huh? Tsitsipas is 23 years old.
Shapovalov is ranked 10th in the ATP rankings and is 22 years old. Ruud is ranked 11th in the ATP rankings and is 22 years old. Auger-Aliassime is ranked 15th in the ATP rankings and is 21 years old. That is just going down to the 15th spot.
From Wikipedia: “He is the second youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and currently has a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history.”
Your post: “he is the second-youngest player in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings. He is currently ranked as the third-best player in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek tennis professional in history.”
Your copy went awry, as did your attribution.