On Tuesday, May 6, a 71-year-old man in Greece said he needed stitches after allegedly being bitten by a dog belonging to the family of tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The incident happened on Monday, May 5 in Vouliagmeni, a seaside suburb of Athens. The man told Greek news outlet NewsIT that he was walking near a cafeteria when the dog suddenly bit him.
“It felt like a bear bite… It ripped through my trousers,” he said.
“Blood was flowing and I fell to the sidewalk.”
People nearby helped him and one of them took him to the hospital. He said he later recognized the woman with the dog as Julia Salnikova, Tsitsipas’s mother and a former tennis player who once played for the Soviet Union.
“We know them, they’ve lived in Vouliagmeni for years,” he said.
“She took the dog away and swore at me.”
The dog was reportedly on a leash during the incident.
Greek police confirmed that the man filed a complaint against Salnikova, who is originally from Russia.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, 26, is Greece’s most well-known tennis player. Once ranked number 3 in the world, he’s now ranked 19 and lives full-time in Monaco.
