The World No.6 was involved in a heated exchange with France's Corentin Moutet, as the two battled in a dramatic Sunday encounter. Moutet seemed frustrated as he watched his two quarters to love lead evaporate, and the situation was exacerbated a few moments later.
The Frenchman took issue with what he considered unsportsmanlike behavior from Apostolos Tsitsipas, the father and coach of his opponent. In the second quarter of the match Moutet directed a snide remark at the coach after he had “encouraged” his son to select the UTS “Winners Count 3” card with the score tied 7-7.
“Excuse me? Who is choosing the cards, the player or the coach” he said, adding: “Do you want to play?”
Things escalated when Moutet barked at the coach again in the fourth quarter, this time in a much angrier tone. This would led to a heated on-court discussion between Moutet and Tsitsipas. During the interval between the end of the fourth quarter and sudden death, Moutet added fuel to the fire by openly criticizing the Greek's father on camera.
“I don’t speak about Stefanos because he’s a good guy, but the father is stupid, everybody thinks he is stupid.” Moutet said.
When informed about Moutet's comments, Tsitsipas revealed that he had seen similar behavior from his French opponent in the past.
“With him it’s not really unusual,” said Tsitsipas after the meeting. “I’ve known him since he was eight years old, it has always been this way. Once we had a European junior championships final where he left the court in the middle of a match because of referee issues [Moutet was leading 7-6, 5-3, 30-0] so it was not unusual for me. It’s UTS, you have to enjoy. I feel like he’s making it way too dramatic for what it is but it’s his choice. He can do whatever he likes, but at the end he’s going to pay for it.”
Tsitsipas would go on to win the match, coming back from two quarters down for the third time during this event. With that loss, Moutet can lo longer qualify for the Final 4. Nonetheless, the Frenchman said after the match that he had “nothing bad to say about Tsitsipas, who is impeccable on the court”.
You can follow the whole competition on TennisUpToDate Live Scores which you can find on this link.