Stefanos Tsitsipas stirred up a bit of a controversy by missing several singles points in his second-round match against Johan Carlsson at the BMW Open,
Many times during the match, Tsitsipas took a break from his work for no apparent reason, including several times while Carlsson was serving.
At one point during the third set, Tsitsipas had finished serving for the set, but then began taking a timeout between points in the match’s final game. After only six points, Tsitsipas lost the game to Carlsson and ended up dropping the match, 6-4, 6-2.
New Greek #Tsitsipas is booed after taking more toilet break. Actually probably worse than Bouchard. He began off by not serving, took time off before taking another. pic.twitter.com/0wOrDq1QdN — Zoe Sandlin (@jordinakuce) May 18, 2017
Tsitsipas, a 19-year-old who attended school in Chicago before deciding to move to Greece and train for tennis, blasted the booing during the match.
“I heard the noise,” Tsitsipas said of the boos. “…I respect them, because they know nothing about tennis.”
Thanks to #Tsitsipas for being a hero to Greek kids and proof that 2k is NOT all it is cracked up to be. https://t.co/5w9wSxTtQB — Tom Morris (@TomMorris63) May 18, 2017
#Tsitsipas gave this interview right after defeating Begu at #BMWOpen in Munich. He took 3 bathroom breaks in the course of the match. https://t.co/9ds1TVRe3Q — Lisa E. Cataldi (@LisaECataldi) May 18, 2017
At the end of the match, Tsitsipas returned to center court, where he received a standing ovation and received a hug from Carlsson.
Carlsson, meanwhile, avoided the boos by staying in his post-match interview.
After the match, Tsitsipas explained how he was feeling.
“I was tired from being out here for 4 months,” he said, “and having some sort of fever or something.”
During the match, Tsitsipas was also booed for scratching his head at a line call.
Today I ended up an early walk-off from the @BMW_Open… pic.twitter.com/nuJSWFSHrF — Stefanos Tsitsipas (@TSATennis) May 18, 2017
Perhaps the most controversial part of Tsitsipas’ day happened after his match. Several minutes after it concluded, he and his doubles partner, Henri Kontinen, were walking to the stairs of the locker room when they stopped on the floor and began stretching.
When a fan asked the pair what they were doing, Kontinen was forced to tell the man to shove it.
Carlsson also chimed in to defend his booing opponent.
Of the Czech, he said: “I was like, ‘Hmm, this guy really has some balls.’ ”