Stefanos Tsitsipas is complaining about things he cannot control at the French Open
Stefanos Tsitsipas entered the 2024 French Open intending to play singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Things have not quite worked out as he hoped. He lost in the singles quarterfinal to Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, and he was forced to withdraw from mixed doubles (with his partner and girlfriend Paula Badosa) on Monday. Tsitsipas, with brother Petros, is still alive in the doubles competition.
Full disclosure: I am a Stefanos Tsitsipas fan, and I also have complaints about the French Open, but my complaints are a lot different than his.
Some might say his complaints are petty, but everyone would say they are uncontrollable, almost like complaining about death and taxes. Tsitsipas needs to let his racquet do the talking and stop with these types of comments.
What Stefanos Tsitispas is complaining about
His complaint about the weather is a pointless one. He blames the weather for forcing him to withdraw from mixed doubles. The weather did stink in the first week of the tournament, but everyone had to deal with it. It is practically impossible to go deep into a Grand Slam tournament in three events for many reasons with weather being a main one because of the match delays and postponements that cause players to play two matches a day to catch up.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is not happy about Carlos Alcaraz’ grunt.
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 4, 2024
He spoke to the umpire about it after the 2nd set tie break:
“I never complain about this but it’s frustrating. When I’m about to hit the shot… and moments before I hit the shot, I still hear the grunt. It’s not… pic.twitter.com/EXKiTBfGwg
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The second complaint manifested while he was losing to Alcaraz in the quarterfinals. He complained to the umpire, not once but twice, about Alcaraz's distracting grunt. He called one of the grunts a prolonged one. What exactly was the point of complaining to the chair umpire about this? Fans responded by booing him. The Alcaraz grunt is probably very distracting to his opponents, but it is not the first time he heard or dealt with it. To his credit, he appeared to speak with Alcaraz at the net about it and cleared the air after the match.
Alcaraz through in three close sets.
— Stephanie Myles (@OpenCourt) June 4, 2024
Tsitsipas looks to be apologizing at the net for being a whiner about the grunting in the heat of the moment and Alcaraz is all "Cool, cool no worries. Love ya, man.
Boys are better at this than girls. 😂 pic.twitter.com/YGXPZfYipE
This complaint was uttered in the heat of the moment. Tsitsipas has never beaten Alcaraz in six tries. That is a frustrating trend. This is the second straight year Tsitispas lost to Alcaraz in straight sets at Roland Garros.
Even though I empathize with his struggles, Tsitsipas needs to ignore the uncontrollables and focus on what he can do which is to continue to win doubles matches with Petros. Their next match is against a French pair who will certainly have the fans behind them, Gregoire Jacq and Manuel Guinard.
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