Stefanos Tsitsipas, a 20-year-old Greek tennis player, stepped to the coin toss between players at this year’s U.S. Open in New York. Then he took another long break in the second set of his first-round match against 32nd-ranked Denis Istomin. And the fans booed.
It was after Tsitsipas won the coin toss and walked to the baseline to shake hands with Istomin. But he walked back to the other side of the court when the match resumed.
Tsitsipas left court for 25 minutes, according to Sky Sports. His resume is hardly extraordinary — besides this one moment — but the reception he received from the crowd in New York was. As one blogger put it:
“It is usually the sponsor that gets booed at a show. Stefanos Tsitsipas was booed for taking over 5 minutes to get to the toilet.”
Pro tip: Don’t take an extended toilet break during a match!
Tsitsipas is ranked 97th in the world. But after his Australian Open quarterfinal run last month, beating the No. 4-ranked David Goffin, the Greek is among the favorites to win the U.S. Open and become the first Greek man to win a Grand Slam.