Andy Murray sparked furious US Open row after toilet break drama
One of the US Open's biggest bust-ups came between Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2021 when the British tennis star accused his opponent of "cheating" after a lengthy toilet break.
It happened to be the first-ever meeting between the 2012 US Open winner Murray and then world No. 3 Tsitsipas and the game didn't disappoint, going the full five sets. Murray won the first and third sets 6-2 and 6-3 but Tsitsipas had a reply every step of the way to force a deciding set.
But before the game's last set could get underway, nature was calling. The Greek tennis star went on an eight-minute hiatus to go to the toilet, infuriating Murray - who was staging a comeback from a series of serious injuries - and resulted in a time violation.
Murray could be heard venting his frustrations to ATP supervisor Gerry Armstrong as well as the chair umpire. "What, for 20 minutes every time? How long do you think it was?" Murray fumed. "In the toilets right there, what's he doing in there? It's never once taken me that long to go to the toilet ever when it's right there."
Murray added: "What's your opinion on this? Give me an opinion, do you think it's good? You [Armstrong] know as well as I do that this is an absolute disgrace.”
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The 36-year-old's irritation at the Tsitsipas toilet drama appeared to knock him off his game. Murray had his serve broken in the first game of the fifth set. Tsitsipas then strolled to victory 6-4 to win three sets to two, booking his place in the second round of the Grand Slam.
"It's not so much leaving the court. It's the amount of time," Murray said after the match. "I spoke to my team before the match about it and said to expect that, prepare for it if things were not going his way. So I was trying to do that. I rate him a lot. I think he's a brilliant player. I think he's great for the game. But I have zero time for that stuff at all, and I lost respect for him ... I think it's nonsense. And he knows it, as well."
Andy Murray complained with the Grand Slam Supervisor, Gerald Armstrong, before later taking to Twitter (Getty)Tsistipas addressed the toilet drama in his post-match press conference, claiming he did nothing wrong. "I don't think I broke any rules," a cool Tsistipas said. "I played by the guidelines, how everything is ... As far as I'm playing by the rules."
But that only angered Murray even more, who took to X, formerly Twitter, with an analogy. "Fact of the day," Murray said. "It takes Stefanos Tsitipas [sic] twice as long to go the bathroom as it takes Jeff Bazos [sic] to fly into space. Interesting."
Both men competed in the 2023 edition of the tournament, but neither made it past the second round. Murray lost to 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov in three straight sets, while Tsitipas went five sets with Dominic Stephan Stricker before losing.
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