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NEW YORK: Stefanos Tsitsipas is not backing off, not much unlike Hurricane Ida that lashed across New York City on Wednesday night. The Greek will take his rather leisurely eight-minute bathroom breaks, not to disrupt his opponent’s rhythm, but because he needs it. Sporting spirit and toilette etiquette be damned.
On a night of record rainfalls – more than half a foot in just four hours – that turned streets and subway stations into cascading waterways, the US Open was hit too. Play on the Louis Armstrong stadium, which has a retractable roof, had to be suspended due to flooding. The Diego Schwartzman-Kevin Anderson second-round clash saw multiple interruptions as the rain was blown in sideways, tournament staff countered the gale with mop-up operations where they threw in everything, including fluffy bath towels into the mix.
The 11th seeded Schwartzman, who slipped during the 108-minute first set, came through 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4 when the match was completed on the Arthur Ashe court.
On a night when nature’s wrath was felt and heard across the region, Tsitsipas produced his own thunder, playing to the beat of the falling rain, he thumped down 27 aces to put out Frenchman Adrian 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0.
Tsitsipas, locked in a loo-gate exchange, which was stirred during his first-round match against Briton Andy Murray on Monday, walked off the court again after dropping the third set tie-break to the resurgent Mannarino. When he returned almost eight-minutes later to the booing of the crowd, his opponent was practicing his serves to keep warm.
Tsitsipas, who’ll play Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz in the third round, said, “There is a rule, but it doesn’t specify the time that you can spend in the bathroom. It is important to take it if you have to.”
The 23-year-old sweats a lot and the humid conditions have been particularly harsh on him this week. “You feel rejuvenated, you feel fresh and you don’t have all the sweat bothering you and coming in your face, on your fingers, everywhere all over your body,” he said. “For me it is important to take that break. And everyone has his own time. I try and be as quick as I can.”
Tsitsipas, swift with the counter off the court, tasked a reporter with the question of how much time Andy Murray had taken for a bathroom break, following the fourth set of the 2012 US Open final in which the Scot beat Novak Djokovic.
Murray had taken less than three minutes. “So three minutes more makes a difference?” Tsitsipas asked.
In a week when bathroom breaks have taken precedence over service breaks –which Sloane Stephens rattled off with a sweet frequency in her 6-4, 6-2 ‘upset’ win over the 21st seed Coco Gauff, while warding off the only break-point she faced in the 66-minute affair — the outspoken American was quick to jump into the mix.
The 28-year-old underlined that there was plenty of gamesmanship in the women’s game too. “I don’t think you should be gone from the court for six-eight minutes, that’s a long time to leave a match,” she said. “That changes the momentum of a match. If you’re changing your clothes, what are you changing? What are you doing in there?”
In other matches, world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev put out German left-hander Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 and will play Spain’s Pablo Andujar in the third round.
In the men’s doubles, India’s Divij Sharan and Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon, who came in as alternates, went down to American Rajeev Ram and Briton’s Joe Salisbury, the fourth seeds, 3-6, 4-6 in 72-minutes. In the women’s doubles, alternates Ankita Raina and Kateryna Bonderenko fell to eighth seeds Andreja Klepac and Darija Jurak 1-6, 1-6.
On a night of record rainfalls – more than half a foot in just four hours – that turned streets and subway stations into cascading waterways, the US Open was hit too. Play on the Louis Armstrong stadium, which has a retractable roof, had to be suspended due to flooding. The Diego Schwartzman-Kevin Anderson second-round clash saw multiple interruptions as the rain was blown in sideways, tournament staff countered the gale with mop-up operations where they threw in everything, including fluffy bath towels into the mix.
The 11th seeded Schwartzman, who slipped during the 108-minute first set, came through 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4 when the match was completed on the Arthur Ashe court.
On a night when nature’s wrath was felt and heard across the region, Tsitsipas produced his own thunder, playing to the beat of the falling rain, he thumped down 27 aces to put out Frenchman Adrian 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-0.
Tsitsipas, locked in a loo-gate exchange, which was stirred during his first-round match against Briton Andy Murray on Monday, walked off the court again after dropping the third set tie-break to the resurgent Mannarino. When he returned almost eight-minutes later to the booing of the crowd, his opponent was practicing his serves to keep warm.
Tsitsipas, who’ll play Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz in the third round, said, “There is a rule, but it doesn’t specify the time that you can spend in the bathroom. It is important to take it if you have to.”
The 23-year-old sweats a lot and the humid conditions have been particularly harsh on him this week. “You feel rejuvenated, you feel fresh and you don’t have all the sweat bothering you and coming in your face, on your fingers, everywhere all over your body,” he said. “For me it is important to take that break. And everyone has his own time. I try and be as quick as I can.”
Tsitsipas, swift with the counter off the court, tasked a reporter with the question of how much time Andy Murray had taken for a bathroom break, following the fourth set of the 2012 US Open final in which the Scot beat Novak Djokovic.
Murray had taken less than three minutes. “So three minutes more makes a difference?” Tsitsipas asked.
In a week when bathroom breaks have taken precedence over service breaks –which Sloane Stephens rattled off with a sweet frequency in her 6-4, 6-2 ‘upset’ win over the 21st seed Coco Gauff, while warding off the only break-point she faced in the 66-minute affair — the outspoken American was quick to jump into the mix.
The 28-year-old underlined that there was plenty of gamesmanship in the women’s game too. “I don’t think you should be gone from the court for six-eight minutes, that’s a long time to leave a match,” she said. “That changes the momentum of a match. If you’re changing your clothes, what are you changing? What are you doing in there?”
In other matches, world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev put out German left-hander Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 and will play Spain’s Pablo Andujar in the third round.
In the men’s doubles, India’s Divij Sharan and Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon, who came in as alternates, went down to American Rajeev Ram and Briton’s Joe Salisbury, the fourth seeds, 3-6, 4-6 in 72-minutes. In the women’s doubles, alternates Ankita Raina and Kateryna Bonderenko fell to eighth seeds Andreja Klepac and Darija Jurak 1-6, 1-6.
