Stefanos Tsitsipas refuses to address drama after trying to kick mum out of tie

Stefanos Tsitsipas refused to comment after trying to kick his mum out of his Italian Open match against Daniil Medvedev. After dropping the first set, the Greek star told his dad that his mum needed to leave the stadium. Instead, she moved to another seat outside of Tsitsipas’ box and he went on to lose in straight sets.

Tsitsipas and his family hit headlines again last week during the Italian Open. The 24-year-old contested a heavily-delayed semi-final match with Medvedev as the clash was rained off for five hours halfway through the opening set.

When play finally resumed, the world No 5 went on to drop the opening set 7-5 and voiced his frustrations at his mum, telling her to stop speaking to him in Russian because Medvedev could understand. She was then seen walking out of his player box and up the stairs of the stadium, taking a seat in a random chair.

Commentators revealed that the 24-year-old urged his dad to tell his mum to leave, prompting her to switch seats. And Tsitsipas refused to address the incident when he was quizzed over it for the first time on Friday.

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“I have no comment on that,” the nine-time title winner said when he was asked whether those incidents drained his mental energy. It came after Tsitsipas confirmed that he had split with Mark Philippoussis, who joined the team at the start of the year.

The world No 5 claimed that he was drained by too many voices in his coaching corner and wanted to stick with one key mentor, presumably his main coach – his father Apostolos. “I’m at a phase of my career in life where I need one coach that can provide all the information, all the analysis, all of the things that I’m looking for to improve my game. Less is more, in my opinion,” he said of his split with former pro Philippoussis.

“I feel like there are a lot of people I could bring in my team that could help for sure by sharing their thoughts and opinions about what can I do better and how can I do it better. But it is very important to stick with few people, in my opinion, and make that work, because when you have a lot of people around you, it can get very draining for your mental energy, too. So that is also one of the reasons.”

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But Tsitsipas’ current situation has raised eyebrows in the past, as the Rome Masters wasn’t the first time that he argued with his parents. During his defeat to Andrey Rublev at November’s ATP Final, he fired a ball in the direction of his box.

Another infamous incident saw Tsitsipas take a swipe in the direction of his father using his racket at the 2020 ATP Cup. His mum Julia was then seen coming down to her son and scolding him for his behaviour.

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