Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev had a rather interesting semifinal in Cincinnati. The German sensation won an impossible match after recovering from a 1-4 deficit (and down 2 breaks) in the deciding set.
Toilet break coaching?
After the end of the 1st set, there was an interesting episode after Zverev won the opener 6-4. Sascha was extremely upset after Tsitsipas got one of his lengthy toilet breaks.
The German player raised strong suspicions that Tsitsipas was cheating since he brought an entire bag with him with a cellphone plausibly in it. According to Zverev, Tsitsipas might have been taking so much time in the bathroom because his father coached him via text. Eventually, Stefanos’ father Apostolos was caught texting frantically during the toilet break to raised more suspicions.
During an exchange on Tennis Channel, former world no1 Andy Roddick stressed that even if it was difficult to prove it, all the evidence was for Stefanos being coached by his father during the break.
Also, Andy pointed out that his father continuously coaches Stefanos and believes that coaching should always be allowed.
Roddick said:
“Let’s get to the facts before we get to an opinion. He has a history of coaching violations with his father; that’s factual. He has been going off the court a lot this week more than normal after catching some heat last week in Canada.
As Zverev has been making his accusations live on camera, saying ‘he is texting him, he is texting him,’ the camera gets over Tsitsipas’s dad, and he is literally like this, just crashing that phone.
If there is a level of respect between top players, you have to be pretty convinced, especially after you are winning and it is going in your way to call someone else that publicly.
Possibly the biggest thing is he comes back from the bathroom break and completely changes of tactics. He didn’t serve-and-volley one time for the entire first set, and he comes out from the first game of the second set and serves-and-volley 3 or 4 straight times?
The anecdotical evidence doesn’t look good for Tsitsipas.”
See the following video (available only in selected countries).
Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2021
Currently the world no.3 (career-high), Stefanos played his last match on the 21st of August when he was defeated by world no.5 Alexander Zverev 6-4 3-6 7-6(4) in the semifinal in Cincinnati (draw)
.During this season the Greek has managed to achieve an overall 48-14 record. Stefanos conquered 2 titles in 2021 in Monte-Carlo and in Lyon. Tsitsipas got to the final in Acapulco, in Barcelona and at the French Open.
Zverev in Cincinnati, ranking, and results in 2021
Currently ranked no.5, Alexander owns a 37-11 record in 2021. Alexander is competing in Cincinnati where he defeated Lloyd Harris 7-63 6-2, Guido Pella 6-2 6-3, Casper Ruud 6-1 6-3 and Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 3-6 7-64.
Alexander Zverev will fight against the world no.7 Andrey Rublev in the final. The head to head is 4-0 for Zverev.
The German conquered 3 titles in 2021 in Acapulco, in Madrid and in Tokyo.
Zverev won 16 titles in his career: 5 on hard courts, 6 on clay courts and 5 on indoor courts. (See the list of his titles)
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev fought against each other 9 times. Their current record is 6-3 for Tsitsipas. The last time they competed against each other, Alexander Zverev won 6-4 3-6 7-6(4) in the semifinal in Cincinnati (Western & Southern Open) on the 21st of August 2021.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.