Stefanos Tsitsipas (5th in the world rankings) and Daniil Medvedev (3rd) meet in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Rome 2023, in a duel that brings with it many precedents and where controversy reigns. the reason? The two of them have a bad relationship. And above all, this duel was no exception.
In the draw before the start of the match, the match umpire – Mo Lahiyani – wanted the two players to take a photo after it was completed. However, neither Steph nor Daniel looked each other in the eye, nor did they intend to take it, and they went to the back of the field to start the rally.
According to the Greek word, the conflict between the two began in 2018 at the Masters 1000 in Miami: “I was playing my match. I don’t remember the score, I think it was 3-2 or 4-2 in the third set. and during one of the rallies the ball touched the net and i got the point after that we played three more points we crossed the net at half time and for some reason he apologized to me i forgot if that happened because Because my focus was on the game.”
Then, he continued the story: “He started looking at me and told me to apologize for what I had done. It was 0-40 and I had three break balls to get back in the game. After that I didn’t. Looks like I’ve won a game now it came to my mind and I was very disappointed with what he did. He said I should apologise, that what I did was sportsmanlike. I tried not to pay attention to him Because I knew he was doing it on purpose but it was getting to me. I got angry. And I said what I said (NDR: He insulted Russian), which I’m sorry about.”
The last thing in this rivalry happened at the 2022 Australian Open, where the Russian argued with the umpire. The former world number one complained that Tsitsipas’ father spoke on every point they disputed.
