“I Didn’t Mean to Do It” – Stefanos Tsitsipas Apologizes After Hitting His Father With Racquet

World Number six Stefanos Tsitsipas surrendered to the Aussie Nick Kyrgios in tight three sets 7-6(7), 6-7(3), 7-6(5) at ATP Cup 2020. His loss was accompanied by untimely meltdowns in the match with gave rise to multiple warnings. 

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ outburst

After dropping the first set he smashed his racquet into the advertising hoardings and chairs on the periphery of the court. Out of anger, he unintentionally hurt his dad and Team Greece captain, Apostolos Tsitsipas.

Within a moment his mother walked out of the stands and tried consoling her son. For smashing his racquet he received a code violation from the umpire Mohamed Lahyani for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“It was fine. It happened accidentally. I didn’t mean to do it and straight away forgot about it and moved from there. It happens. I wasn’t aiming to do that, so just it went out of control, unfortunately,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said.

Point penalty

Tsitsipas was also given a point penalty in the second set. It was 1-1, Ad-In on Kyrgios’ serve, Tsitsipas hit a ball at the Greek Team Zone and received a point penalty.

Read More – WATCH: Stefanos Tsitsipas Hits His Own Father During Meltdown Against Nick Kyrgios

Stefanos vs. Nick – An exhibition of serves

Both Tsitsipas and Kyrgios hit 43 aces in Tuesday’s encounter. Neither of them dropped their service games and they collectively put up an exhibition of serves. The Greek lad failed to convert two break points and the Aussie couldn’t convert one of them he came across.

“I served really well in big moments but the atmosphere was awesome. We’re carrying some momentum going to Sydney. It could have been easy to take your foot off the gas today. I thought both the Greeks showed up and I think they really wanted to win this tie, but I was happy we both got it done today,” Kyrgios said.

Greeks are eliminated from ATP Cup 

Team Greece has been eliminated from the ATP Cup 2020 tournament. Previously they were defeated by Canada and Germany. Tsitipas mentioned that they had a difficult draw in Brisbane, as the ‘tiny little nation’ Greece had to compete against strong countries like Canada, Germany, and Australia.

His country, Greece has no history of tennis. Last year Tsitsipas the highest-ranked Greek player in history of the sport. His career-high ranking is number five in the world. “You got to feel proud. We fought very hard and we wanted to prove to the rest of the world that [we] can play tennis anywhere in the world,” the ATP Finals 2019 champion Tsitsipas said.

Previously Greece’s Michail Pervolarakis ranked 486th played some quality tennis against Australia’s John Millman.