Stefanos Tsitsipas has astonishing on-court meltdown and injures his dad by smashing racquet after losing set at ATP Cup

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS had an astonishing on-court meltdown, smashing his racquet and then injuring his dad at the ATP Cup.

The Greek sensation, 21, let rip after dropping the first set on a tie-break to Australian Nick Kyrgios in Brisbane.

He swung his racquet violently at an advertising hoarding next to where his dad was sat in the Team Greece zone courtside.

Apostolos, who is also his son’s coach, flinched and then was left clutching his arm as his son took another furious swipe at his chair.

As Tsitsipas Jr took his seat and threw down his smashed-up racquet, his dad stood up in clear discomfort and walked off.

Then Tsitsipas’ mother Julia was quickly on hand to give her son a public rollicking for his childish antics.

TV cameras later showed Apostolos with a clear bruise near his elbow from the incident.

Unsurprisingly, Tsitsipas – who won the ATP Finals at London’s O2 Arena in November – was slapped with a code violation by the chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani for unsportsmanlike conduct.

In the third game of the second set, he whacked a ball in anger after failing to take two break points and was hit by a second code violation and therefore a point penalty.

Towards the end of the match, Tsitsipas was booed after venting his anger over an alleged let cord that was not picked up by the technology.

STEF STUFFED

And there is likely to be more punishment heading the Greek’s way with a hefty fine expected – although he could count himself lucky not to be disqualified.

But Twitter was split on the incident.

One said: “That is default. Default. Plain and simple. Outrageous and disgusting that Lahyani let Tsitsipas get away with it.”

Another added: “Its pretty tough when its your own team/dad. Like he 100 per cent didnt mean to make contact and it barely looks like it except the reaction and blood. Like its bad but its just really hard position.”

And a third wrote: “Hahaha oh man Tsitsipas accidentally hit his dad (who was on the bench) with his racquet when he went to smash it and his mum then came and scolded him for his behaviour. That is hilarious!”

Team Greece were already out of the inaugural ATP Cup ahead of Tuesday’s clash with hosts Australia following defeats to Canada and Germany.

But the world No6 was determined to get the victory and forced a deciding set.

After three tie-break sets, Kyrgios finally came through with some simply stunning tennis from both players to seal victory in the tie for Team Australia.

The Kyrgios match is expected to be his last competitive action before the Australian Open gets underway on January 20.

Tsitsipas reached the semi-finals last year, stunning Roger Federer in the fourth round.

But his latest outburst will continue to be a talking point going into the first major of the season, where he will be looking to break the Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic duopoly.

In last year’s Australian Open, he received two code violations in his third-round victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili for time wasting and then going on a expletive rant.

The long-haired YouTube star raged: “That w***er there has f***ed me. F*** your house.”

And he was also handed a code violation during his first-round exit to Andrey Rublev at the US Open in August, blasting the umpire and the entire French nation as “weirdos”.

The youngster fumed: “Do whatever you want because youre the worst. For some reason you have something against me,

“I dont know what you have because youre French, probably. And youre all weirdos. Give me a warning, I dont care.”