Andy Murray has called out Thierry Guibert after the Lacoste chief executive lashed out at Stefanos Tsitsipas following the Greek ace’s withdrawal from the ATP Finals. Tsitsipas was only able to play three games of his clash with Holger Rune on Tuesday before retiring with a back injury.
Tsitsipas held his only service game during his clash with the Dane and forced two break points on his opponent’s serve. But after calling for the physio at the first changeover, he was unable to continue.
Rune went on to lose to Jannik Sinner in his next match on Thursday evening. And after that showdown, Guibert took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: “Hats off to @janniksin for his win tonight. Despite the unfair behaviour of Tsitsipas, he showed to everyone why he is a future champ and an authentic guy.”
Murray was clearly unhappy with Guibert’s choice of words and was quick to hit back. “Bizarre post from a CEO of a sports brand,” he penned on Friday morning. “Getting injured is part of sport and isn’t ‘unfair behaviour.’”
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Read more… ATP Finals umpire gives crowd ultimatum as Rune booed after unusual review
Following his withdrawal from the final tournament of the year Tsitsipas went into detail about his back issue. “My apologies to all the fans and the crowd that came to support me today and watch the match,” he said during a press conference. “I’m really gutted that I wasn’t able to finish the match. My doctors and the countless visits that I had in the past few days suggested that I play, gave me the green light to go and try it for myself.
“I had a little bit of trouble with my movement. It’s mainly affected when I move. It’s difficult to compete in the match without having to move. This is tennis. This is not darts. For me, it’s important to be fit and feel good with my back. The pain was very big. I’ve gone through pain during matches in the past, and I endured pain, but this was clearly too much to handle.
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“I had to take the difficult decision to do what I did. I felt it at the second game of the match. I actually felt it in the warm-up with my serve. Warming up on my serve, I felt very irritated and lots of pain hitting me on my back. I kind of knew at that time that I might not be able to go all the way.”
Sinner will feature in the ATP Finals semi-finals after winning all three of his matches in the Green Group and will be joined by Novak Djokovic. Daniil Medvedev has qualified for the semi-finals from the Red Group, with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev battling it out for the final spot in the last four.
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