MELBOURNE, Jan 28 — Stefanos Tsitsipas said he has spent “countless hours” talking with his father-coach Apostolos over coaching violations after yet another warning helped trigger a semi-final collapse against Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open today.
In a repeat of their semi-final in Melbourne last year, world number two Medvedev again mastered fourth-ranked Tsitsipas 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to reach his second straight Australian Open final where he will face Rafael Nadal on Sunday.
In a tempestuous match, Medvedev was given a code warning after raging at the chair umpire about coaching from the player’s box and later Apostolos Tsitsipas was given a warning for coaching his son.
The intervention did not help Tsitsipas who dropped five straight games to sink without trace in the decisive fourth set.
On-court coaching is an offence on the ATP Tour and repeat offender Apostolos Tsitsipas had already been given two coaching violations earlier in the Grand Slam.
Stefanos Tsitsipas said he has regularly tried to stop his father from shouting from the player’s box.
“I’ve talked to him about it. I’ve tried, spent countless hours trying to figure it out with him, but it’s part of him,” Tsitsipas said.
“I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep receiving coaching violations, even though I will never listen to any single thing he says.
“But it’s fine, they can do that if they want, if they believe it’s right.
“That was also one of the reasons last year I went out publicly on one of my social media platforms and said that I think coaching should be allowed, simply because coaches do it anyways.”
There is bad blood between Medvedev and Tsitsipas dating back to a fiery clash in Miami four years ago and the pair exchanged a cursory touch of hands at the net after match point.
“Yeah, he’s a great competitor. He runs like a marathon runner, he can run for hours and hours,” Tsitsipas said of the Russian world number two.
“I’m not sure if that’s something that can last very long, having to run so much. It has a huge impact on the body.
“But I respect the fact that he’s able to run so much and make it physical out there in every single point.
“He’s one of the biggest fighters, together with Nadal. I guess he’s earned the title.” — AFP
