Stefanos Tsitsipas denied bending the rules with his bathroom breaks during his dramatic five-set victory over Andy Murray at the US Open.

Murray, 34, blasted the Greek third seed for the “nonsense” and said he had lost respect for him after Tsitsipas disappeared off court for almost eight minutes at the start of the fifth set.

However, after closing out a 2-6 7-6 (7) 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory over the 2012 champion in just less than five hours, Tsitsipas said: “If there’s something that he has to tell me, we should speak, the two of us, to kind of understand what went wrong.

“I don’t think I broke any rules. I played by the guidelines, how everything is. I don’t know how my opponent feels when I’m out there playing the match. It’s not really my priority.

“As far as I’m playing by the rules and sticking to what the ATP says is fair, then the rest is fine. I have nothing against him. Absolutely nothing.”

Murray came agonisingly close to pulling off the biggest win of his comeback as he bowed out of the US Open in a dramatic and at times ill-tempered five-setter against third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 34-year-old Scot almost defied the odds, the heat, a slippery pair of shoes and some borderline gamesmanship from the Greek world No 3.

Having won the first set – the first he had taken from a top-five player since 2017 – Murray had two points to clinch the second in the tie-break.

But drenched in sweat in the humid conditions, he began complaining that his trainers had become too slippery – yet it soon became apparent he did not have a spare pair.

After losing the tie-break he even instructed coach Jamie Delgado to find him a new pair, although rush hour in Manhattan is no time to go shoe shopping.

However, having come through career-saving hip surgery and a host of other injury problems over the last few years, Murray was not about to let a pair of sweaty pumps derail him.

He took the next set to lead 2-1 but Tsitsipas upped his level, racing 5-0 ahead then taking the match to a deciding set.

When Tsitsipas disappeared for yet another off-court break before the start of the fifth he was given a time violation, but Murray was clearly wound up.

After dropping serve in the opening game he was heard muttering about “cheating” and later asked supervisor Gerry Armstrong why it was taking Tsitsipas so long.

“What’s he doing in there? It’s never taken me that long to go to the toilet,” he moaned.

Feeding off the crowd and a familiar sense of injustice, Murray forced a break point at 1-2 but it was extinguished by a sizzling Tsitsipas forehand.

Tsitsipas held his nerve along the finishing straight and when an exhausted Murray dropped a forehand into the net, his latest Flushing Meadows campaign was over.