Novak Djokovic may have to keep a close eye on Stefanos Tsitsipas’ antics after the Greek star appeared to skirt the rules during his Australian Open semi-final win over Karen Khachanov. Tsitsipas had long been tipped as the man best equipped to challenge Djokovic in the Australian Open final and he booked his place for Sunday’s showdown with a four-set win over Khachanov.
But it was far from comfortable for Tsitsipas in the first set of the match with the umpire seemingly being lenient towards the Greek tennis star on several occasions. During the tiebreak, Jim Courier noted how Tsitsipas was lucky to not be called for a foot fault at a crucial point of the set.
While serving with a 3-1 lead, Tsitsipas’ back heel was seen crossed the centre line along the baseline, although it wasn’t picked up during the point. “That was a foot fault right there. Yeah that was a foot fault. His back right foot was over the line, so someone is watching that,” Courier said.
“I was about to say, he’s about to do it again, which would be really silly at this score line. It was just so obvious. He does flirt with the centre line.” Tsitsipas was also guilty of several serve clock violations during the opening set and it could have been even more had the umpire been more strict.
“That’s the thing, there are clocks all over the place for these players to see,” Courier added. “You just have to be mindful if the clock is 25 seconds, and it starts not when the point ends, it starts when the umpire calls the score.”
Tsitsipas explained his confusion over the foot fault violation during his post-match press conference, admitting he was standing as close to the middle of the baseline as possible. “Apparently I found out it was just a really close foot-fault from the side of the separation line between deuce and ad,” he said.
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