Angry Andy sees hopes of victory go down the pan

ANDY MURRAY said he had lost respect for Stefanos Tsitsipas after bowing out in New York to the world No.3 in a dramatic and bad-tempered five-setter.

The 34-year-old Scot was livid at the lengthy bathroom breaks Tsitsipas was taking between sets and demanded more should be done to clamp down on the ‘nonsense’.

When Tsitsipas disappeared for yet another off-court break before the start of the fifth set, he was given a time violation but Murray was clearly wound up.

After dropping serve in the opening game, he muttered about ‘cheating’ and later asked supervisor Gerry Armstrong why it was taking Tsitsipas (pictured) so long.

‘What’s he doing in there? It’s never taken me that long to go to the toilet,’ he moaned.

‘It’s not so much leaving the court. It’s the amount of time,’ said Murray afterwards. ‘I spoke to my team before the match and said to expect that, prepare for it if things were not going his way.

‘But the issue is you cannot stop the way that affects you physically. When you’re playing a brutal match like that, you know, stopping for seven, eight minutes, you do cool down.

‘It’s just disappointing because I feel it influenced the outcome of the match. I’m not saying I necessarily win that match but it had influence on what was happening.

‘I rate him a lot. I think he’s a brilliant player. I think he’s great for the game. But I have zero time for that stuff at all and I lost respect for him.

‘If everyone else feels like that’s totally cool and there’s no issue with it, then maybe I’m the one being unreasonable. But

I think it’s nonsense. And he knows it.’

Tsitsipas said: ‘ If there’s something he has to tell me, we should speak, the two of us, to kind of understand what went wrong. ‘I don’t think I broke any rules. I played by the guidelines. I don’t know how my opponent feels when I’m out there playing the match. It’s not really my priority. ‘[If] I’m playing by the rules and sticking to what the ATP says is fair, the rest is fine. I’ve nothing against him.’ Murray was eventually denied the biggest win of his comeback as the Greek triumphed 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in just under five hours.