Australian tennis great Wally Masur believes there’s some off-court drama impacting ousted US Open No.4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Greek 24-year-old was stunned in the first round of the major on Tuesday, losing to Daniel Elahi Galan 0-6, 1-6, 6-3, 5-7 to be sent packing on day one of the tournament.
He’s ranked fifth in the world and has won nine titles on the ATP Tour – his first in 2018 – but is yet to break through and claim one of the big four.
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Now the entire tennis world is wondering what happened after Tsitsipas lost the first 11 games of the match to his unseeded opponent.
He clawed back to win the third set but Galan steamrolled his much-fancied rival in four.
“Losing is one thing, but the manner of his loss has just got me scratching my head,” Masur told Stan Sport’s Grand Slam Daily.
“This guy is good – he got to the final of Cincinnati, that is a big event. He beat (Daniil) Medvedev.
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“Tsitsipas lost the first 11 games (against Galan), he won seven points in those first 11 games. You are mentally not there if that happens.
“There was no outstanding injury or major problem. They are playing in the cool of the evening, heat wasn’t a factor.
Tsitsipas stunned in first round boilover
“There is something going on off the court that is troubling Tsitsipas.
“He has never played particularly well at the US Open, but that is a bad loss.”
Tsitsipas won’t get a chance for major redemption until he heads Down Under to contest the Australian Open in January.
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