Tsitsipas should have found himself down by a double break but avoided it after a missed call went his way.
Stefanos Tsitsipas acknowledged that umpires failing to call his double fault in one of the key moments of the third set likely distracted Jannik Sinner and played a big part in him coming back to beat the Italian 6-4 3-6 6-4.
With Sinner leading 3-1 in the third set of their Monte Carlo Masters semifinal, the Italian also had a break point when the Greek failed to make his first serve in. Tsitsipas’ second set also appeared to be well-out but neither did the line umpires or the chair umpire make any calls. Tsitsipas ended up winning the point and saving a break point.
Instantly, the commentators questioned whether Tsitsipas’ second was in. The hawkeye shown on TV revealed that the ball was out and Sinner also realized that after going to check out the mark.
From that moment on, the match completely changed and Tsitsipas went on to come back from a break down and upset the second-seeded Italian. After the match, many thought that the moment from the fifth game of the third set changed the momentum and everything in Tsitsipas’ favor.
Tsitsipas asked if that moment indeed influenced the remainder of the match
Answering the question, Tsitsipas was pretty honest.
“It might have had a bigger influence on my opponent than it had on me. I was dealing with a break down at that moment,” Tsitsipas said.
“Of course double break down wouldn’t make things easier for me (smiling), and just holding serve there was crucial. I think the match would have turned out completely different if that would have been called out. I will agree that it would have been pretty bad for me if that call was made.
“There are a lot of weird things on clay that we don’t see on other surfaces. One of them is the line calling and sometimes the marking.
“As someone that has played a lot on clay, I try and make the calls myself. I don’t rely too much on line umpires to do their job. Always, whenever I hit a ball that’s close to the baseline or the sideline that I think might be out, I hit it and I just have a quick look before I continue the point.”
How Sinner felt about Tsitsipas’ double fault not being called in the key moments
After Tsitsipas avoided going down by a double break in the fifth game, Sinner managed to serve out the following game and open a 4-2 lead. Then, Tsitsipas served out the seventh game to love – saved a game point in the eighth game – before converting his fourth break point in that game to level the third set to four games apiece.
In the ninth game, Tsitsipas routinely held on to his serve to go 5-4 up before breaking Sinner again in the 10th game – the game in which the Italian was serving to stay in the match.
Afterward, Sinner admitted that he was mentally impacted by the situation and revealed that the stress caused by thinking of it likely led to cramps. But Sinner refused to throw the umpires under the bus or Tsitsipas, instead saying stuff like that can happen.
“No, it happened. You know, you cannot do nothing anymore. It’s already the past,” Sinner said.
“I mean, it’s tough to accept this, yes. It’s tough, a tough one to swallow, because, you know, I was playing at some point great tennis. Was, you know, yeah, playing well. You know, tactically everything went in the right direction.
“You know, everyone can make mistakes unfortunately or fortunately. You know, also I can make mistakes. And it went like this.
“Then after, you know, to having cramps, it’s a consequence of most likely of this what happened, you know, because it also goes in the nervous side of the brain (smiling), and then after, it’s not easy to play. I tried my best still.
“You know, Stefanos raised the level, but when the momentum changes, it goes like this. This is the fun part of tennis.”
By beating Sinner in Monte Carlo, two-time Grand Slam finalist Tsitsipas became just the second player in 2024 to defeat the Italian. Previously, reigning Australian Open champion champion Sinner was 27-1 this season.
Also, Tsitsipas managed to end his two-match losing streak against Sinner. Now, Tsitsipas owns a 6-3 head-to-head against Sinner.
For Tsitsipas, this was his biggest win of the season and certainly one that could potentially turn his season around.