By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday August 30, 2021
After falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas in a dramatic five-setter (won by Tsitsipas 2-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4) on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Day 1, Andy Murray told reporters that he’d lost respect for Stefanos Tsitsipas during the contest.
The 2012 champion, now 34, become incensed when Tsitsipas took a toilet break that lasted more than seven minutes before the fifth set. Murray complained to the chair umpire Gerry Armstrong, and continued to complain about Tsitsipas throughout the fifth set. Afterwards he told reporters why he didn’t appreciate Tsitsipas’ bathroom break.
“I think he's a brilliant player,” Murray said. “I think he's great for the game. But I have zero time for that stuff at all, and I lost respect for him.”
Murray explained why he felt it wasn’t fair to him that he was made to wait so long.
“It's not so much leaving the court. It's the amount of time,” he said. “I spoke to my team before the match about it and said to expect that, prepare for it if things were not going his way. So I was trying to do that.
“But the issue is that you cannot stop the way that that affects you physically. When you're playing a brutal match like that, you know, stopping for seven, eight minutes, you do cool down. You can prepare for it mentally as much as you like, but it's the fact that it does affect you physically when you take a break that long, well, multiple times during the match.”
Tsitsipas, for his part, says he was playing by the rules and wasn’t aware that Murray was so ticked off at him.
“If there's something that he has to tell me, we should speak the two of us to kind of understand what went wrong,” he said. “I don't think I broke any rules. I played by the guidelines, how everything is. Yeah, definitely something for both of us to kind of chat about and make sure. I don't know how my opponent feels when I'm out there playing the match. It's not really my priority. As far as I'm playing by the rules and sticking to what the ATP says is fair, then the rest is fine. I have nothing against him. Absolutely nothing.”
Tsitsipas will face Adrian Mannarino of France in his second-round match.