Stefanos Tsitsipas and his long toilet breaks have been the talk of the town at the US Open right now. It has been a great source of memes, debates and engagements around the US Open.
The Greek star took a seven-minute toilet break against Andy Murray in a very crucial situation in the game. It raised a lot of controversies as Murray himself complained about it during the match and also at the press conference. He was so irritated that he even tweeted about it later.
The Scot compared Tsitsipas’ toilet breaks with the time Jeff Bezos requires to lands in space. Murray admitted that these long breaks are not good for his opponent as it breaks the rhythm.
However, Tsitsipas did the same thing in his clash against Adrian Mannarino. He lost the third set and then he took the long toilet break and came back and won the fourth set and also wrapped the match. On his return to the court from the toilet break he was booed by the fans.
This has always been an issue with the Greek, even Alexander Zverev has raised this issue multiple times. Tsitsipas however feels that toilet breaks are important for him as he looks forward to changing his sweaty clothes.
“It is important,” Tsitsipas said. “First of all, you carry less weight on you with all the sweat. You feel rejuvenated, you feel fresh, and you don’t have all the sweat bothering you and coming in your face, on your fingers, everywhere all over your body. It makes you feel better.”
He assures that he tries to make it fast. But sometimes it takes more than usual and he feels that it is not a big deal. “For me, it is important to take that break. For someone else probably not. And everyone has his own time,” he explained. “I try and be as quick as I can. Sometimes I just need a bit more time. That’s all.”
The 23-year-old also did not agree with the crowd and all that booing. He felt that he was well within the rules to use the toilet break and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. He even called out the fans for not knowing what it takes to succeed at the top level.
“I haven’t done anything wrong, so I don’t understand,” Tsitsipas said. “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 haven’t played tennis at a high level to understand how much effort and how much difficult it is to do what we are doing,” he added. “Sometimes we need a short break to do what we have to do.”
