2003 Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis suggested he felt Nick Kytgios got into Stefanos Tsitsipas’ head and that was the reason behind the Greek’s loss. In the Wimbledon third round, Kyrgios recovered from a set down to beat Tsitsipas 6-7 (2) 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7).
After losing the second set, a frustrated Tsitsipas smashed the ball into the crowd but avoided a default. Kyrgios then unloaded on the chair umpire as he was adamant that the Greek deserved to be defaulted. Kyrgios’ antics were clearly getting to Tsitsipas and the Greek seemingly tried to hit the Australian several times during the match.
Philippoussis: Tsitsipas is mentally strong but lost his temper
“He has to find a way to manage it and focus on himself because it will happen again. He will expect it to happen again, because if it was tennis vs tennis, Tsitsipas would win every time.
That’s why Kyrgios needs the distraction, it helps him,” Philippousis said in an interview with SDNA newsline.” Stefanos is mentally strong, he just lost his temper. He will learn a lot from this game and it will be a blessing for him in the future.
He’s going to have to find a way to stay focused on himself because he’s going to play important matches against Nick in the future. He will have to find a way and I don’t think something like that would happen again.
Despite the constant tiff between them, he had opportunities in the fourth set and if he would have won, he probably win’s the fifth too.” After the match, Tsitsipas called Kyrgios “an evil bully.” When Kyrgios was told about the comments Tsitsipas made, he called him “soft.”
Kyrgios and Tsitsipas clashed twice this grass season and the Australian twice ended on the winning side. A few weeks ago in Halle, Kyrgios also recovered from a set down to beat Tsitsipas. It will be interesting to see how will the next match between Kyrgios and Tsitsipas unfold.
