Murray's displeasure and Kiryos' insolence

The first day of the US Open tennis championship was mostly remembered not for bright fights, but for scandals. Benoit Peer vigorously complained that some fans talked during the rallies, and Sloane Stevens almost received a fine for talking to her coaches. But the focus was on Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose match lasted almost five hours, and the behavior of the Greek displeased not only his opponent, but also other athletes.

The meeting between Murray and Tsitsipas turned out to be intense and eventful. The Briton, who has recently experienced serious health problems, was on equal terms with the third racket of the world and twice led in sets. And this despite the problems with shoes that arose during the fight. At the end of the second game, Andy complained to his team that his sneakers were soaked through with sweat, as evidenced by one of the rallies. The three-time Grand Slam winner played the ball at the net and was ready to deflect the opponent's retaliation, but slipped and fell.

The most discussed were the regular visits of Tsitsipas to the under-stands.

During the meeting, he took toilet breaks several times, which turned out to be quite long.

This, as expected, pissed off Murray, who appealed to both the head judge and the supervisor.

In particular, he accused Stefanos of cheating, called his behavior a shame, and in one of the episodes he shouted at his opponent.

However, all this did not help the 34-year-old athlete, who eventually lost 6: 2, 6: 7 (7: 9), 6: 3, 3: 6, 4: 6.

At a post-match press conference, Murray admitted that he had lost respect for Tsitsipas, and expressed the opinion that the ATP leadership needs to deal with such phenomena in tennis.

“If this issue does not concern people strongly enough to change something, okay. I will also discuss this with the team, see what the fans, the players, and everyone else are saying. Maybe I'm overreacting because I lost the match. But now it seems to me that this is all complete nonsense, which needs to be fought, because it harms sports, interferes with television, interferes with the fans. This is not good for the players either. After a match with one of the best tennis players in the world, I don't have to talk about how cool he is, what kind of contribution he makes, how great it was for me to perform at that level after everything that happened to me over the past four years. No, I have to talk about toilet, medical and other breaks. It sucks. It shouldn't be that way, ”Murray lamented.

In turn, Tsitsipas expressed the opinion that he had not done anything wrong and assured that he was ready to personally discuss his claims with Murray.

“If he wants to tell me something, we have to discuss it together and figure out what went wrong.

In my opinion, I did not break any rules.

I played within the bounds of what was permitted.

Yes, we definitely have something to chat about ... I don't know how my opponent feels when I play with him.

(His feelings -

RT

) are not a priority for me.

The main thing for me is that I play by the rules and within the framework of what the ATP considers fair, ”said the Greek.

Earlier, Tsitsipasu had already expressed claims that he spends too much time going to the restroom during the break between sets. A little over a week ago, Alexander Zverev expressed dissatisfaction with his long absence on the court. Moreover, the Olympic champion Tokyo assumed that the Greek went to the under-stands in order to receive advice from his coaches by phone. Then he even complained about this to the chief judge, but he did not react to his suspicions.

Perhaps it was these words that caused Stefanos to carry things not in a bag, but in a transparent bag at the US Open.

At the same time, he expectedly denied all accusations from the German, assuring that he had not done anything like that during their meeting at the Masters in Cincinnati.

Actually, if this were so, then it did not help him much.

Then Zverev won, and later won the trophy.

After the first round match of the US Open, Murray was supported by his close friend Nick Kiryos.

The Australian left a scathing comment under the post on the official Instagram account of the US Open about Tsitsipas's victory, asking how many times he was absent from the site.

And during his own meeting with Roberto Bautista-Agut, he once again ridiculed the behavior of Stefanos.

The reason for this was a remark from the referee Carlos Bernardes, who asked Kiryos to put towels in specially designated places, and not throw them anywhere.

The Australian stated that his job is to perform for people, not go back and forth for a towel.

However, the referee corrected him, noting that this is also part of the game.

This caused a sharp reaction from Nick, who not only responded harshly to Bernardes, but also mocked Tsitsipas along the way.

He asked if texting with a coach and 20-minute toilet breaks were considered “part of the game”.

Perhaps excessive incontinence and led to the fact that Kiryos not only lost to Bautista-Agut, but suffered the biggest defeat in his career at the Grand Slam tournaments.

The Australian lost 3: 6, 4: 6, 0: 6 and for the fourth time in his career he could not overcome the first round barrier at the US Open.

The last time this happened to him was in 2017, when he was weaker in four games than John Millman.

Anniversary victory of Medvedev and success of Rublev 

Nevertheless, the first day of the US Open was also remembered for more positive events. Russian tennis players generally got off to a good start at the last Grand Slam tournament of the season. Daniil Medvedev dealt with the tour veteran Richard Gasquet without any problems, without spending two hours on the court. In the first two games, the 35-year-old Frenchman still resisted, but eventually lost unconditionally - 4: 6, 3: 6, 1: 6.

For Medvedev, this victory was the 200th in his career and the 160th on hard. But as the Russian himself admitted, he was in many ways lucky to deal with Gasquet so quickly. According to him, he didn’t feel the best and was glad that he didn’t have to play five games on the court. In the next round he will be confronted by the 57th racket of the world - German Dominik Koepfer. Tennis players have met each other only once, and also at the US Open. In 2019, Daniel was stronger in four sets, and later reached the final, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Andrei Rublev did not experience any special problems, having dealt with Ivo Karlovich in three sets. Even 19 innings through the attack did not help to impose a fight on the Croat, eight of which fell on the final segment of the meeting. The Russian showed incredible composure, not only playing all four break points, but also making only eight unforced mistakes. As a result, a well-deserved victory (6: 3, 7: 6 (7: 3), 6: 3) and a ticket to the second round, where Pedro Martinez Portero will become his opponent.

Daria Kasatkina, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Kamilla Rakhimova also started with victories, replacing Johanna Konta, who had withdrawn from the tournament. The first did not experience any problems in the confrontation with Tsvetana Pironkova (6: 2, 6: 1), the second outplayed Sara Errani (6: 3, 6: 2), and the third, though not without difficulty, broke the resistance of Christina Mladenovic. The Russian woman won only two games in the first set, but then she was stronger - 2: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3. Anna Blinkova and Evgeny Donskoy, who for the 11th time in a row lost to the representative of the top 20 of the ATP rating, could not support the initiative of their compatriots. This time, 21-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Alyassim stood in his way.

The first day of the US Open was also remembered for several intense duels.

In addition to the match between Murray and Tsitsipas, two thrillers took place in the women's singles, setting a new tournament record for the duration.

In parallel fights, Rebeka Masarova and Ana Bogdan, as well as Elisa Mertens and Rebecca Peterson, took 3 hours and 40 minutes to determine the winner.

And 20-year-old American Alicia Parks performed the serve at a speed of 129 miles per hour (207.6 km / h) in a match with Olga Danilovich, repeating the record of Venus Williams 14 years ago.

True, this did not allow her to achieve her first victory in the main draw of the Major.

The Serbian native prevailed in two games.