He won against Denis Novak 7-6 (2) 6-2 but when he was broken in the seventh game in the first set, he was seen yelling towards his box where his parents and trainer were sitting.
Later, Tsitsipas talked about his match and said that he had trouble adjusting to the conditions in Vienna.
“It took time to adjust to these new conditions. I was playing against an opponent that I didn’t know much about. I hadn’t played him before.”
“I did really well in the second set, kind of finding my steps and getting a good feel of the court, of the balls,” he said.
It was a very good second set, in my opinion. I just wish I could have pulled that off in the fist set but it didn’t come. I had to fight hard in that first one to get it and play a good tie-break,” Tsitsipas added.
This is the first time that Tsitsipas and Novak has played against one another.
Tsitsipas had a chance to start with an early break but he missed out on making three break points in the second game, giving the first break of the match in the seventh game to Novak and this lead to the swearing and cursing.
Last week, Tsitsipas’ mother had defended the tennis player’s behavior at this year’s Wimbledon, blaming the outburst on having to play off Australian Nick Kyrgios who is also known for his temper.