Team Greece coach Apostolos Tsitsipas and No.2 singles player Michail Pervolarakis engaged in a testy mid-match exchange tonight as Pervolarakis endured painful service problems with his ball toss.
Trailing Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 7-6, 3-0 in the ATP Cup in Sydney, Pervolarakis was bombarded with advice from Tsitsipas – the father of Greece No.1 Stefanos.
“Don’t rush. Why are you rushing the first ball?” Tsitsipas asked a clearly annoyed Pervolarakis.
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“This is way too much information… has to be simple,” Pervolarakis replied.
Tsitsipas didn’t listen as he kept gesticulating and bombarding the world No.399 with his thoughts.
Pervolarakis appeared to be tuning out the animated coach but the pair did slap hands in a friendly enough fashion before returning to the court.
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“You can see with a player if they do get an overload of information that it becomes a bit confusing,” John Fitzgerald said in commentary for Nine and Stan Sport.
“Especially if you’ve lost the first set. If you’ve won it you can accept it a little more.”
The tennis court is a very lonely place when the simple art of the ball toss goes awry.
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“He (Pervolarakis) was just talking about how he was thinking so much about his ball toss, too far left, too far forward – that’s not an easy place to be when you’re thinking about a ball toss,” Mark Petchey said in commentary.
“No, because you’re thinking about structurally trying to put a point together and win it,” Fitzgerald replied.
“And you’re reacting to the other player’s moves as well, where he hits the ball.”
Pervolarakis did at least win the next game before falling 7-6 6-1 in the opening match in the tie.
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