Greek tennis champ Stefanos Tsitsipas played doubles in the finals of the Miami Open with Dutch doubles player Wesley Koolhof against doubles legends Bob and Mike Bryan.
The 20-year-old fumed during the game after a chair umpire overruled a serve originally called in, however he spoke up after the Bryan brothers protested. It was then that Tsitsipas and Koolhof challenged the overrule with the Hawkeye showing that the ball was in.
An angered Tsitsipas erupted at umpire Gianluci Moscarella.
“Why are you giving them so many privileges?” he asked.
Moscarella responded: “It’s not a privilege, they have the right to do it, it’s all I can do.”
Tsitsipas responded, “The feeling that I have is that you’re giving them privilege like you do with Roger (Federer) and everybody else.”
The Bryan brothers won the sixth title at the event and 39th Masters 1000 titles with a 7-5 7-6 win.
Following the incident Federer was forced to defend himself, just after landing the 101st title of his career at the Miami Open.
“So because we know each other very well, I think it’s easier for an umpire to handle a top player who they know over an up-and-coming guy like Tsitsipas or a young guy and that sometimes gets lost in translation and maybe bad mistakes can happen,” he said.
“But I don’t see preferential treatment, there shouldn’t be. If I get warnings — I got one recently — it’s normal. So they should just, based on what happens, take those decisions and I really feel the umpires do that. I am sorry that Stefanos feels that way.”
Later, Tsitsipas watered down his comments on social media.
Here’s a video of the moment: