‘Spent countless hours convincing’- “TARGETTED” Stefanos Tsitsipas defends his father’s antics after on-field coaching row in defeat against Daniil Medvedev
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Stefanos Tsitsipas and his father
Stefanos Tsitsipas was defeated at the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the third time in his career as the Greek went down to Daniil Medvedev over four sets in what was a hotly contested and ill-tempered match.
Despite reaching the semifinals of Australian Open on three occasions in the last four years, the Greek seems to be missing the cutting edge which would help him to convert and finally win his first Grand Slam title. However, for this time, the Greek was convincingly outclassed World No.2 Medvedev.
Tsitsipas reveals his thoughts on the father coaching violation
Friday’s Australian Open 2022 semi-final match was marred by a few controversies and heated moments, one of which was Stefanos Tsitsipas‘ father and coach Apostolos coaching his son during the match, which is prohibited by the guidelines of ATP and for which Stefanos received a violation. This is not the first time for Apostolos, as he is a repeat offender and has been given two similar warnings before in this very tournament.
Post the match, Tsitsipas revealed to the media that he had tried to talk to his father about his repeated offences and tried to urge him to stop, but said that he couldn’t do more as he couldn’t possibly ask him to shut up. The “countless-hours” which Tsitsipas has spent talking to his father have clearly not had an effect as Apostolos continues to coach his son even during ongoing matches.
“I’ve talked to him about it. I’ve tried, spent countless hours trying to figure it out with him, but it’s part of him. I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep receiving coaching violations, even though I will never listen to any single thing he says,” said the Greek.
The World No.4 then went on to defend on-field coaching, terming the ban on the subject as unfair as it violates the right of the coach. Tsitsipas has spoken about the subject earlier too, when he raised his voice against the ban on on-field coaching last year on social media.
“But it’s fine, they can do that if they want, if they believe it’s right. That was also one of the reasons last year I went out publicly on one of my social media platforms and said that I think coaching should be allowed, simply because coaches do it anyways,” continued Tsitsipas.
Apostlos’ antics were followed by a meltdown by Daniil Medvedev, as the Russian heatedly protested to the chai umpire against the on field coaching. Medvedev’s raging saw him being hit with a code warning in the heated contest.
In another instance, Tsitsipas went on to say that he felt targeted by the match officials. According to him, the umpires always look out for his coach’s box and don’t pay attention to the opponent’s, thus targeting him specifically. He also went on to say that he had been a victim of this discrimination for a long time now.
“They’ve been targeting me already a long time. I feel like I’ve gotten a few in the past and the umpires are always paying attention to my box never paying attention to the opponent’s box. I feel I have been a victim of that for a long time now”
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Akash Mandal
(433 Articles Published)