World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas was left frazzled by a spectator allegedly making bee noises during his Cincinnati Masters contest on Thursday morning, demanding for the patron to be kicked out.
During the second set of his straight sets victory over American Ben Shelton in Cincinnati, Tsitsipas began swatting at invisible flies while preparing to serve.
The Greek star, having unknowingly recreated a scene from Jerry Seinfeld’s 2007 masterpiece ‘Bee Movie’, walked up to the chair umpire and declared: “There’s a person imitating a bee behind me.
“It’s a buzz right before I serve. Do you think that’s okay?”
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Tsitsipas then waltzed towards a group of spectators to inquire about who was making the alleged buzzing sounds, returning to the chair umpire after identifying the culprit.
“It has never happened in my career,” he continued.
“I know they’re supporting (Shelton).
“It’s the lady over there, I want her out. She needs to go.”
Before play resumed, a woman in the crowd was seen apologising to a frustrated Tsitsipas, who ultimately cruised towards a 7-6 7-6 victory.
“He’s still relatively young and he has that free spirit in the way he approaches his game,” Tsitsipas said of his opponent.
“It came down to two tiebreakers and I was very confident if I made a few returns back and got him to rally a bit, things might go my way, and it ended up so. I was tough, for sure. I was tough as nails, and that gave me the win today.”
Tsitsipas will next face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the round of 16 on Friday AEST.