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NEW YORK — After defeating No. 44 Adrian Mannarino on Wednesday night time, No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas is now the winningest participant on the ATP Tour in 2021, with 50 wins. He hit a career-high 27 aces, and 53 winners, and all anybody needs to speak about are his lavatory breaks.
Tsitsipas took solely 2 hours and 41 minutes to dismantle Mannarino, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0, which didn’t embody the seven or eight-minute lengthy hiatus he took after shedding the third set. Mannarino, who was visibly irked by what many players on tour see as a stall tactic — and a violation of tennis’ unwritten guidelines — requested for balls so he may follow serves whereas his opponent was off the court docket.
Tsitsipas returned from his break to boos from the group at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I have never completed something incorrect, so I do not perceive,” Tsitsipas mentioned in a post-match press convention. “The folks love the game, they arrive to observe tennis. I’ve nothing towards them. I really like the followers.
“However some folks do not perceive. That is all. They do not perceive. They have not performed tennis at excessive stage to know how a lot effort and the way a lot troublesome it’s to do what we’re doing.”
Tsitsipas has a historical past of taking lengthy, mid-match breaks, however his actions have come to some type of head at this U.S. Open. They reached a boiling level Monday when he performed Andy Murray within the first spherical of the Open, and departed the court docket for greater than seven minutes. After the match, Murray said he’d lost all respect for Tsitsipas, and on Tuesday morning, mentioned that it takes Tsitsipas “twice as lengthy to go to the toilet because it takes Jeff Bezos to fly into area.”
Tsitsipas taking a seven-to-eight minute lengthy break in his match towards Mannarino on Wednesday didn’t de-escalate the scenario. Mannarino, when requested what he considered Tsitsipas’ determination to take an extended break, mentioned that he was extra agitated by the rule itself, moderately than the participant taking benefit of it. The 2021 Official Grand Slam Rule Ebook says {that a} participant can depart the court docket “for an affordable time for a bathroom break, a change of apparel break, or each, however for no different motive.” The rule doesn’t state a restrict for a way lengthy the break ought to be.
“Nicely, I believe he’s not doing something incorrect, I believe the rule is incorrect,” Mannarino mentioned after the match. “I don’t assume he’s doing something incorrect, as a result of he’s allowed to try this. I believe most likely the ATP ought to most likely take into consideration altering the foundations about these lengthy breaks.”
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The vast majority of the questions directed Tsitsipas’ means in his post-match press convention had been bathroom-related, which appeared to frustrate the Greek participant. At one level, a moderator wanted to step in, and suggested journalists to not belabor the purpose.
“It will be significant,” Tsitsipas mentioned of taking his break. “To start with, you carry much less weight on you with all of the sweat. You’re feeling rejuvenated, you’re feeling contemporary, and you do not have all of the sweat bothering you and coming in your face, in your fingers, in every single place throughout your physique. It makes you’re feeling higher.
“For me you will need to take that break. For another person most likely not. And everybody has his personal time. I attempt to be as fast as I can. Typically I simply want a bit extra time. That is all.”
Tsitsipas fielded a query in regards to the notion of breaking an unwritten rule, and maintained that he had completed nothing incorrect.
“I’ve completed all the pieces the precise means,” he mentioned. “If I have never, I ought to be penalized. I fully agree with it. I ought to get a high quality or penalized if I have never adopted no matter I’ve completed appropriately. However so far as I do know, you recognize, it’s a necessity, it’s a want once I’m on the market enjoying, performing.”
When pressed about Murray’s feedback by reporter Ben Rothenberg, Tsitsipas insinuated that Murray had taken an extended lavatory break himself, within the 2012 U.S. Open males’s last towards Novak Djokovic.
“I’ve a query for you,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “I do not watch different folks’s enterprise. However I bear in mind watching it once I was youthful. Are you able to please examine when Andy Murray confronted Novak Djokovic on the last right here, earlier than the fifth set, that break, are you able to please look it up and let me know subsequent time?”
“I did,” Rothenberg replied. “He took lower than three minutes.”
“Lower than three minutes, OK,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “So, three minutes extra make a distinction?”
Tsitsipas is scheduled to play No. 55 Carlos Alcaraz within the third spherical of the Open this week. It’s probably that extra consideration can be paid to his time spent off the court docket, than on it.
Comply with Alex Coffey on Twitter @byalexcoffey
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