World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas admitted he enjoyed a bit being the bad guy but insisted he never went to a long bathroom break to provoke his opponent of anything like that. After losing the first set to Alexander Zverev in the Cincinnati Masters semifinal, Tsitsipas went to the bathroom for eight minutes.
Zverev was furious with Tsitsipas and he complained on the court and also after the match. After the fourth set of his US Open first round clash against Andy Murray, Tsitsipas also went to an eight-minute bathroom break and the Briton was absolutely furious and later unloaded on the Greek.
“It was almost nice to be the bad guy,” Tsitsipas told La Stampa. “On the Tour, I’m the nice guy who always has to live up to that ideal person and changing my perspective for a while made me smile. I certainly didn’t go to the bathroom to annoy anyone, or to provoke a reaction.
Nothing like that. I never imagined so much noise and outrage, I just went to the bathroom like any other human being.”
Tsitsipas’ season came to an end on a disappointing way
Tsitsipas retired his Paris Masters opener after just six games due to an elbow injury.
Tsitsipas returned to action at the ATP Finals but he pulled out of the event after losing to Andrey Rublev in his opening group stage match. “In Paris the pain was unbearable so I had to quit from that game, I’ve never retired in a match – it was very painful for me to let the crowd down and not play that match,” Tsitsipas said during his pre-tournament interview at the ATP Finals.
“But, I had to, it was for my safety, my well-being, and I don’t regret doing that. In the last couple of days I have been practicing with a little bit of pain but recently I’m feeling much better than when I started, five six days ago. It’s heading toward the right direction and I’m doing everything possible to recover from it.”
