Fourth seed Alexander Zverev made an impressive start to his US Open campaign earlier today. In his match against Sam Querrey, the German made light work of the American with an emphatic straight sets victory.

After his first-round victory, the 27-year-old stirred the pot in a simmering rivalry between him and rising Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas. When asked about the 23-year-old’s prolonged bathroom breaks, Zverev bluntly mentioned his experience when playing him in the Cincinnati Open a few weeks back.

Alexander Zverev believes Stefanos Tsitsipas texts his father during bathroom breaks

At the Cincinnati Open, Zverev faced Tsitsipas in the semifinals. During the match, the Greek left the German frustrated with his bathroom breaks, which Zverev even mentioned to the chair umpire. Despite his frustrated state, Zverev overcame Tsitsipas in a three-set thriller to advance to the final.

By winning the tournament in Cincinnati, the German jumped to fourth place in the ATP Rankings. After his victory over Querrey, journalists asked him about Tsitsipas’ breaks after Andy Murray took issue after his loss yesterday.

While admitting not being asked about it in Cincinnati surprised him, Zverev believed Tsitsipas texts his father, Apostolos during these breaks. He said, “He’s gone for 10-plus minutes. His dad is texting on the phone. He comes out, and all of a sudden his tactic completely changed. It’s not just me but everybody saw it. The whole game plan changes.”

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Zverev: It just happens too often

Although the German balanced his criticism with praise for the Greek’s achievements, he mentioned how there needs to be a level of respect between players. He also took Murray’s name to make this point.

“I do believe, and Andy said it as well, there is some level of respect that everybody needs to have between players,” said Zverev. “I feel like, yeah, sometimes – or he might just go to the toilet. We don’t know that. That’s also possible. But it just happens too often, I would say.”

The German will face another unseeded opponent in Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round later this week. With Tsitsipas on the other side of the draw, the two rivals can only meet in the final of the US Open this year.

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