Stefanos Tsitsipas was left raging with anger during his Shanghai Masters Round of 16 match vs Daniil Medvedev, on Wednesday. It was Medvedev, who ended up winning, clinching a 7-6 6-3 victory.
In the fourth game of the second set, he was leading with the score at 15-30 to Medvedev. Then the epic drama began as the chair umpire issued him a time violation warning, which saw him lose his first serve.
The Greek ace approached the umpire Fergus Murphy and said, “Why are you doing this to me man?”
The umpire replied, “The clock starts automatically.”
“I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour,” Tsitsipas replied straightaway.
Murphy continued, “Just listen. It might help if you listen. The clock starts automatically. I have no control over that.”
“Why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you,” replied Tsitsipas.
“That’s not a correct statement. I’m not against you or anybody,” Murphy responded.
“I haven’t seen any of my opponents get a time violation besides myself,” Tsitsipas retorted.
“Well maybe if you watch more matches. We give lots of time violations,” the chair umpire quipped.
“Are you sure? There are some out there who are match worse than me,” Tsitsipas replied.
“I’m sure they get time violations. The best thing to do is talk about this match. On that serve you were too slow. You need to watch the clock. You have to keep watching the clock and keep up,” the chair umpire said again.
Tsitsipas went back to serve and then Medvedev broke him. He then once again started arguing with the chair umpire.
He has the chair umpire, “My issue is the double fault you just took away from me. That’s the issue. Have you never played tennis in your life?”
The chair umpire replied that he had played tennis, to which the Greek responded, “You have no clue about tennis it seems like.”
The chair umpire went on to say that he is not as good as Tsitsipas but has played tennis. Tsitsipas then remarked, “Definitely you have no cardio. You probably serve and volley all the time. Tennis is a physical sport. We need time over there. Show some compassion. We aren’t throwing darts out here.”
Tsitsipas then asked for the supervisor and refused to play. After the supervisor came, he once again began to argue and then finally had to return to the match.
