Stefanos Tsitsipas defends his toilet break against Andy Murray, says he "didn't break any rules"

Stefanos Tsitsipas found himself in a hole during the early stages of his 2021 US Open opener against former champion Andy Murray on Monday. The Greek trailed by two sets to one but was able to dig deep and turn things around to eventually win a five-setter that lasted nearly five hours.

Although Tsitsipas and Murray both played some scintillating tennis during the encounter, the quality of the match was sullied by a controversy surrounding the former's bathroom break. Tsitsipas took a seven-minute break at the end of the fourth set, which did not sit well with his opponent at all.

Andy Murray looked absolutely livid with Stefanos Tsitsipas for stalling the match, and even spoke to US Open match supervisor Gerry Armstrong about the Greek's alleged gamesmanship. Murray got broken right after the resumption of play, and during his post-match press conference he claimed he had 'lost respect' for the youngster.

But Stefanos Tsitsipas, who is known to take toilet breaks in longer matches, was quick to offer a defense. During his post-match press conference, the 23-year-old claimed he had played by the rules during the match, and that he would like to sort the issue out with Murray privately.

"I don't think I broke any rules," Tsitsipas said. "I played by the guidelines, how everything is. Yeah, definitely something for both of us to kind of chat about and make sure. I don't know how my opponent feels when I'm out there playing the match. It's not really my priority."

"As far as I'm playing by the rules and sticking to what ATP says is fair, then the rest is fine," he added. "I have nothing against him. Absolutely nothing. If there's something that he has to tell me, we should speak, the two of us, to kind of understand what went wrong."

Andy Murray speaks with US Open supervisor Gerry Armstrong during Stefanos Tsitsipas' lengthy toilet break

According to the rulebook, a player is entitled to one two toilet breaks during a best-of-five-sets match, which means Stefanos Tsitsipas was following the letter of the law. However, Andy Murray highlighted that the Greek's break came at an important stage of the match, and that it was physically difficult for him to get back in high gear after such a long break.

Murray screaming at Tsitsipas to get up after he got back on court after a 7 min break in between sets and sat down. Literally yelling at him. Stefanos endearing himself to nobody with this stuff.

— Nick Nemeroff (@NNemeroff) August 30, 2021

When told about Murray's point, Tsitsipas insisted he took the break just to change his clothes, and that he needed that much time to do that.

"Well, I think it's clear that I took my clothes with me when I left the court," Tsitsipas said. "That's the amount of time it takes for me to change my clothes and to walk back to the court takes a little bit of time."

"I don't know what's the rule regarding that, if there is one," he added. "But as far as I know you're allowed to have two toilet breaks to go change your clothes in a five-setter, and one in a three-setter. I followed that throughout my entire career. I've never broken any rules, so I see no reason that that's a problem anyways."

"I don't know what kind of imagination it takes to go to that point" - Stefanos Tsitsipas on illegal coaching claims

Stefanos Tsitsipas was also asked about his controversial toilet break during his three-set loss to eventual champion Alexander Zverev at the 2021 Cincinnati Masters. The Greek was accused by his opponent of sneaking in his phone with him during the break to discuss strategy with his father Apostolos.

Although Tsitsipas has gained some notoriety for receiving on-court coaching during matches, on Monday he opined that the allegation of getting coaching while in the bathroom was "absolutely ridiculous".

"I have never in my career done that," Tsitsipas said. "I don't know what kind of imagination it takes to go to that point. That's not something I want to take seriously because it's absolutely ridiculous to be thinking about that. Anyway, that's it."