Stefanos Tsitsipas has suffered a straight sets loss against Daniil Medvedev at the Shanghai Masters 6(3)-7(7), 3-6.
Tsitsipas started the second set strongly, breaking in the first game, but world No.5 Medvedev broke in the fourth and eighth to progress.
Medvedev now leads their head to head record 10-4, including beating the Greek twice last year in semi-finals in Rome and Vienna.
Things got heated in Shanghai, but not between the two rivals. Tsitsipas got into a heated exchange with the chair umpire during the match.
During the second set, when the top ranked Greek initially took a lead of 2-1 against Medvedev, he received a time violation.
He was heard asking the umpire, “Why are you doing this to me man?” The chair umpire replied, saying that the clock starts automatically.
Then Tsitsipas further went on to claim, “I’m the best about this on tour, the most consistent player about this on tour.”
“Just listen. It might help if you listen. The clock starts automatically. I have no control over that,” the umpire responded.
Tsitsipas continued, saying “why are you guys against me so much? The last few months have been terrible. I don’t understand what’s gotten into you.”
The umpire clarified that he was not against him or anybody. However, the 26-year-old continued arguing with him by claiming that he hadn’t seen any of his opponents get a time violation.
“Well maybe if you watch more matches. We give lots of time violations,” the umpire said.
After some continued arguing, Tsitsipas went back to served but got broken, prompting him to return to the umpire’s chair.
“My issue is the double fault you just took away from me. That’s the issue. Have you never played tennis in your life? You have no clue about tennis it seems like,” he said.
The umpire responded back with “I’m not as good as you are, but I’ve played.”
Tsitsipas’ reply? “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.”
