"If it was only tennis against tennis, Stefanos would win every time" - Mark Philippoussis on Kyrgios v Tsitsipas

Nick Kyrgios was fined US$4,000 for audible obscenity following a code violation during his match with Stefanos Tsitsipas but it was the Greek who due to an incident involving smashing the ball towards the crowd who received the larger fine.

The latter was warned twice by the chair umpire for ball abuse; he first hit the ball into the crowd and then appeared to direct a volley at his opponent out of frustration. Former World No. 7 Mark Philippoussis, who has collaborated with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the past, recently reflected on the controversial third-round tie.

Philippoussis stated that the 23-year-old needs to find a way out of irritable situations and that he needs to learn from this encounter:

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"He has to find a way to manage it and focus on himself because it will happen again. He will expect it to happen again, because if it was tennis vs tennis, Tsitsipas would win every time. That's why Kyrgios needs the distraction, it helps him."

He continued:

"Stefanos is mentally strong, he just lost his temper. He will learn a lot from this game and it will be a blessing for him in the future. He's going to have to find a way to stay focused on himself because he's going to play important matches against Nick in the future. He will have to find a way and I don't think something like that would happen again. Despite the constant tiff between them, he had opportunities in the fourth set and if he would have won, he probably win's the fifth too."

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