“Fire them,” Stefanos Tsitsipas furious at umpire over toilet break controversy, receives penalty

At the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jaume Munar 6-3 6-3, with a break in each set, to set up a quarterfinal encounter against Stefanos Tsitsipas. In this highly contested quarter-final match, the young Spaniard managed to snatch the match away from the veteran Greek who won the Last Week’s Monte-Carlo Masters, with a final score of 4-6, 7-5, 2-6.

Stefanos Tsitsipas gets penalised twice

The Greek was down a set, but he battled back to win the second set by a score of 7-5. Stefanos Tsitsipas complained to the umpire during the final set when he was about to get bageled, that Carlos Alcaraz was taking too long in the washroom. When his complaint was denied, Tsitsipas became enraged and said, “If you are wrong, you should be fired.” The Greek was penalised twice because he was found guilty of changing his t-shirt too slowly during the changeover. In addition, when he was down 0-3 in the third set, he took an excessively long pause.

Although, this isn’t the first time that the tennis circle and specifically Stefanos Tsitsipas is dealing with the toilet break controversy. One and two breaks were allowed in best-of-three and best-of-five-set matches respectively. The rules stated that players could take a “reasonable” amount of time without mentioning the exact duration.

However, the rules changed when players on both ATP and women’s WTA circuits have been accused of tactically using toilet breaks at crucial moments of a contest; to clear their minds and/or disrupt the opponent’s rhythm. It became a hot-button issue at the 2021 US Open when world No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas was booed during his matches for taking multiple breaks. In his opening match against Andy Murray, Tsitsipas took an extended toilet break at the conclusion of the second set, a medical timeout after the third and an eight-minute break at the end of the fourth set.

A match full of controversies

It was expected to be a fiercely contested encounter between the two tennis professionals and it turned out to be exactly that. The Greek, who came to the Barcelona Open wrapped up in the glory of last week’s Monte-Carlo Masters, seemed to be troubled with Alcaraz’s beautiful drop shots. It was even more evident when the Spaniard Snatched the first set away from him.

Aside from Alcaraz’s marvellous drop shots, another event occurred. Tsitsipas blasted the tennis ball squarely toward the Spaniard in the final game of the opening set, forcing him to duck down to avoid the shot. Following the shot, Alcaraz uttered some remarks that have yet to be revealed. It’s still unclear whether the shot was deliberate or a result of the game’s flow, but what’s more astonishing is that the Greek made no attempt to apologise to the Spaniard after such a massive incident.

Also Read: Watch: Stefanos Tsitsipas smacks the ball into Carlos Alcaraz, issues no apology

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