“He’s taking the breakup with Paula Badosa well” - Fans react to Stefanos Tsitsipas smashing his racket in frustration during Italian Open 2R clash

Stefanos Tsitsipas smashed his racket in after being broken in the first game at the 2024 Italian Open. This sparked reactions from fans who felt that the Greek displayed incorrect behavior as a professional.

Tsitsipas has been in phenomenal form so far at the European clay swing, winning the Monte-Carlos Masters while finishing as the runner-up at the Barcelona Open. Though he had a slight hiccup at the Madrid Open with a second-round upset to Thiago Monteiro, the Greek returned to winning ways at the Italian Open.

The 25-year-old kicked off his run in Rome with a win against Jan-Lennard Struff. The win didn't come easy as the Greek had to come back from behind to see off the German 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4. However, after having his serve broken in the very first game of the match, Tsitsipas smashed his racket at a towel box in frustration.

Fans reacted to Stefanos Tsitsipas' action coming in five minutes into the match. One fan jokingly suggested hat the Greek was taking his breakup with Paula Badosa well.

"He’s taking the breakup with Paula well"

Another fan felt the Greek must be penalized for his actions as they found the action to be unacceptable.

"If the sport had a spine, there would be much harsher penalties for this," the fan said.

Here are other reactions from the fans with some relating Tsitsipas' behavior to his recent breakup with Badosa.

"He's been reading the 'Badosa is doing better now' tweets" joked a fan

"When you remember you don't have Badosa at home" a fan quipped

"crazy to think the match had just started n he acted like that. hard to believe that he won this match considering his mindset when it started!" a fan was surprised

Some other fans didn't enjoy Stefanos Tsitsipas' behavior and felt that he put the ball kids and officials at risk.

"Doing this sort of stuff in the vicinity of officials or ball kids should be a worse offense than doing it when no one is around you. It feels off that this gets the same treatment (warning) as snapping your racket in half against your knee." a fan opined

"We can debate until the cows come home as to whether this is bad or not but I honestly think the main thing is did it feel good to do? Because I ain't gonna' lie, it LOOKED like it felt good to do." said a fan

"This is way worse than what Rublev did in Dubai" another fan opined

Stefanos Tsitsipas will play Cameron Norrie in the third round of the Italian Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas in action at the Italian Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas' win over Jan-Lennard Struff took his win-loss record in the 2024 season to 22-8.

The Greek will next face 27th seed Cameron Norrie in the third round. The Brit received a bye in the first round thanks to his seeding and then beat Jaume Munar 6-3, 1-6, 6-3

This will be the third meeting between the two, with their head-to-head tied at 1-1. The winner of the match between will face either 18th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or seventh seed Alex de Minaur in the fourth round of the Italian Open.