Stefanos Tsitsipas booed for another toilet break at US Open after Andy Murray feud

Stefanos Tsitsipas slams racket during Nick Kyrgios clash

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Stefanos Tsitsipas found himself at the centre of more bathroom break controversy during his US Open second-round match. The third seed toppled Adrian Mannarino 6-3 6-4 6-7(4) 6-0 to back up his five-set win over Andy Murray in their fiery round one encounter. After becoming embroiled in a feud with the Brit over a lengthy toilet break taken during their contest, Tsitsipas was booed by the New York crowd when he left the court for a prolonged period once again after dropping a set to Mannarino.

Tsitsipas has sparked a big debate on the rules around off-court breaks in the few days since his blockbuster opening-round clash with Murray.

The Greek left the court for eight minutes ahead of the fifth set, with Murray becoming visibly frustrated and accusing him of “cheating”.

The 2012 US Open champion continued to rant throughout the fifth set and took aim at his opponent during his post-match press conference, saying he had “lost respect” for the world No 3.

Bathroom breaks were already the talk of the tennis world when Tsitsipas took to court on Wednesday night for his round of 64 encounter with Mannarino, and he found himself jeered by the crowd for taking another amid the controversy.

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Tsitsipas got off to a quick start, taking the first two sets, but dropped the third to the world No 44 on a tie-break.

Much like he did when fighting off a resurgent Murray to secure the fourth set of their match 6-3 after being 5-0 up, the Greek then left the court for a lengthy toilet break.

As his brief absence from the court went on, Mannarino asked for balls so he could keep himself warm and practice serving as Tsitsipas clocked yet another seven-minute trip to the bathroom in a second successive match.

When the third seed returned, the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd proceeded to boo him, but Tsitsipas backed himself and hit out at the spectators when asked about the incident after the match.

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“I haven’t done anything wrong, so I don’t understand,” he said, after firing a career-best 27 aces to seal victory.

“The people love the sport, they come to watch tennis. I have nothing against them. I love the fans. But some people don’t understand. That’s all. They don’t understand. They haven’t played tennis at high level to understand how much effort and how much difficult it is to do what we are doing. Sometimes we need a short break to do what we have to do.”

It was clear that the majority of fans inside the biggest stadium in tennis were likely clued up on the drama from the previous couple of days, with Murray having slammed the Greek following their match.

The former world No 1 labelled the eight-minute break “nonsense” as he took issue with the length of time rather than the break itself, and said he thought the pause in play influenced the outcome of the match, before taking to Twitter to double down on his criticism of Tsitsipas the following day.

“Fact of the day. It takes Stefanos Tsitipas twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazos to fly into space. Interesting,” he posted.

Mannarino himself later said he didn’t think the third seed did anything wrong but added: “I think the rule is wrong.”

Answering questions in French during his post-match press conference, he continued: “I read that it was his routine to take a break. In this case, it’s more unsportsmanlike conduct. So many players use this little tool to break down rhythm.”

Meanwhile, the recent Roland Garros runner-up failed in trying to make a point about a bathroom break Murray took during his 2012 final victory over Novak Djokovic.

While being grilled about the time taken for his toilet breaks, Tsitsipas asked: “I have a question for you. I don’t watch other people’s business but I remember watching it when I was younger. Can you please check when Andy Murray faced Novak Djokovic at the final here, before the fifth set, that break, can you please look it up and let me know next time?”

“I did. He took less than three minutes,” the reporter confirmed immediately.

The 23-year-old replied: “Less than three minutes okay.”
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