The match between Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas was a real battle both on the court, with a great game that lasted two hours and 41 minutes, as well as in breaks and off it., with accusations by the German and protests against the referee by the Greek.
After losing the first set 6-4, Tsitsipas asked permission to go to the bathroom to change, something that players usually don’t do so early. During that interruption, which lasted about seven minutes, Zverev accused Tsitsipas’s father of sending instructions to his son via mobile (“He’s with it all the time. He does it all the time, it was the same in Paris,” he snapped) and he told the chair umpire, the Egyptian Adel Nour, who replied that he could not decide anything about it and that he was limited to applying the rules, that it was the player’s responsibility. Tsitsipas took a good whistle when he returned to the court.
“The same thing in Paris and is gonna be the same in every others tennis tournament Stefano Tsitsipas is playing” Zverev, @steftsitsipas @VisitGreecegr @usopen @TennisBuzzBlog @FOXSportsNews @ GregRusedski1 @pmouratoglou pic.twitter.com/mqc3VSLAys
– Zainal R (@Zaindamai) August 22, 2021
The game continued and at the end of the second set, with equality on the scoreboard, asked to go back to the locker room, which was not allowed because in three-set matches they can only go to the bathroom once. The Hellene got angry and argued with Nour, who did not give his arm to twist. Later, at a press conference, he was comfortable with him: “He doesn’t have the best reputation on the circuit among the players. I was totally soaked and wanted to go to the bathroom. But he didn’t let me. I don’t know if this depends on the reaction of the players or the rules he says, I’ll look at it later, but I’ve had problems in the past with this referee. I don’t know why he is so strict. It’s not nice at all. ”
Tsitsipas breaks
To top it all, during his press conference, a journalist blamed Tsitsipas for using bathroom breaks for so long and for a long time., to explain what he did in them. To which the player replied angrily: “It’s not crazy, not astrophysical. I’m going to change my shirt. I don’t think it’s nice to change pants in front of people on the court, that’s why I go out. I’d rather do that and wear other sneakers in the locker room. I sweat more than other players, and I’m not going to stop doing what I do. “