When Stefanos Tsitsipas faced Nick Kyrgios at Wimbledon last year it became quite the spectacle. It wasn’t just the tennis that had people tuning in but also the friction between the two and the controversy that would continue beyond the match itself. After the very heated match that saw both players mouthing off at one another and Kyrgios even asking for his opponent to be defaulted, the press conference became grounds for both to take shots at each other.
Tsitsipas, whose pride was evidently bruised by the defeat, made comments that recently resurfaced thanks to Netflix’s Break Point. With some people calling his comments racist, Stefanos responded with a statement on social media. But now this statement too is resulting in accusations being leveled against the Greek player.
Stefanos Tsitsipas faces flak from netizens
Following the release of the latest episodes of Break Point, a storm kicked up online due to Tsitsipas’ comments. He’d called Nick Kyrgios “uneducated” and also mentioned how he thought the Aussie was bringing the “NBA attitude” to tennis, which is apparently supposed to be a gentleman’s sport.
Many who took offense to these statements that Tsitsipas had made in the post match press conference took to social media to voice their disapproval, suggesting the comments had racial undertones.
Tsitsipas was quick to respond while also owning up to the fact that he hadn’t handled the defeat very well. The Greek player put out the statement, which is very elaborate to say the least, on his Facebook page. And many believe that he has used ChatGPT to generate the statement instead of curating it himself.
Having read the statement, which runs for 12 long paragraphs, many netizens are accusing Stef of using ChatGPT. The comment section of this Reddit post is filled with mentions of the generative AI tool, with many even pointing out phrases that are often produced by the tool.
One redditor urged Stef to stop using the AI tool and start using his own words.
“He needs to stop using ChatGPT and write his own words.”
Others pointed out phrases from the statement that ChatGPT tends to often use.
“ChatGPT starts ever letter with “I hope this message finds you well”, so I’m leaning towards it is”
One user joked about the prompt used in the tool to generate the statement.
““Write an half assed apology as if you were Stefanos Tsitsipas” was the pront”
Nick Kyrgios’ heart of gold
Back in 2022 during the post match press conference, Kyrgios was bemused when he heard of some things that Tsitsipas had said about him and the match. Naturally, he’d defended himself by pointing out that it was in fact his opponent who had been unsporting, hitting a ball in the crowd amongst other things.
From the looks of it, however, the Aussie has no qualms in letting it all go and move on from the whole incident. In fact, he went to the extent of defending Tsitsipas in a tweet.
It was a very heated battle 🙏🏽 sometimes as players we go into these press conferences without digesting the match…. We’ve had some crazy battles and I know deep down you like my brand of tennis 👀🤷🏽♂️ we are all good @steftsitsipas https://t.co/5y6dwP5zSM
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 24, 2023
With this kind gesture from Kyrgios and the statement from Tsitsipas, the friction between the two seems ready to dilute. It will be interesting to see the two face off again at Wimbledon, hopefully without the drama this time around. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that any and every statement put out by the Greek will be scrutinized henceforth just to see if ChatGPT has had anything to do with it.
