On the night of Saturday, September 9, Daniil Medvedev will play in the semifinals of the US Open against the world number one, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. The opponent is the favorite in this pair, but still you shouldn’t underestimate the Russian at all – he has already reached the finals of Grand Slam tournaments several times in his career. In one of these semi-final confrontations, our athlete had difficulty controlling his nerves and even ran into the referee.

The emotional shake-up was beneficial – Medvedev put the finishing touches on his demoralized opponent.

“Match where you have to fight”

In 2022, Daniil Medvedev went to the Australian Open as one of the main favorites. The Russian’s chances of overall victory increased even more when it became known that Serbian number one seed Novak Djokovic would not play in Australia. It cannot be said that our tennis player’s move around the net was completely problem-free. In the second round, he needed four sets to defeat Nick Kyrgios. In the fourth round, it was necessary to spend four games in order to eliminate US representative Maxime Cressy from the drawing. And the quarterfinal confrontation with Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime lasted all five sets. It was possible to reveal the winner only 4 hours 42 minutes after the start of the match.

In the end, Medvedev reached the semifinals. There he was waiting for a meeting with an old acquaintance – the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, with whom they not only fought mercilessly on the court, but also often entered into verbal altercations in person and in absentia. The tennis players’ relations were never friendly, and at some time the athletes reached the point of outright hostility.

— I have always said that Tsitsipas and I are not enemies, although we are far from friends, we are work partners. But now I’ll say that we are probably enemies,” Daniil assessed the Greek during the ATP Final Championship in 2019.

Later, the bitter enmity smoothed over, but each match between these rivals was perceived as a fundamental battle. By the way, before the next meeting in Australia, Medvedev had an advantage – six victories versus Tsitsipas’ two. The statistical superiority was spoiled by the fact that in their last confrontation at Roland Garros the opponent was stronger. However, Daniel did not doubt his abilities.

— The Grand Slam semifinal is a match where you have to fight. If I’m in good shape, then I need to show it on the court. Stefanos is a difficult opponent with whom we have had many matches. Some I won, some he won. Last year I played incredibly well here. I hope that I will serve well and show the best tennis this time, and we will have a great match,” Medvedev said after the quarterfinals.

“You are very bad!”

Both managed to serve well at the beginning of the match. In the first set, everyone confidently took their serve, leaving no chance for their opponent. With the score 4:4, Medvedev had a real opportunity to turn the tide of the game in his favor: he earned a triple break point, but never realized his advantage. It came to a tiebreaker, in which Stefanos was already close to success. Daniil allowed his opponent to taste victory, but, losing 1:4, he turned on and took the set.

The intermediate success somewhat relaxed our tennis player. At the very beginning of the second set, he allowed his counterpart to make a break. Afterwards, Tsitsipas went completely wild, taking the fourth game to zero. However, Daniil tried to cling to the game, did not let go forward much, and then equalized the score and even took the lead for a while – 4:3. True, the successful streak suddenly ended – the Greek easily took his serve and then made a break, taking advantage of his opponent’s mistakes. Our tennis player’s nerves began to fail, and he even allowed himself an angry tirade against the judge.

Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas / Photo: © Darrian Traynor / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

-Are you stupid? His father speaks in every prank! Will you answer my question?! My God, you are very bad! How can you work so poorly and still be in the semi-finals of the tournament?! Look at me, I’m talking to you! If you don’t punish him, you will, how can I say it… – Medvedev was indignant, choosing an offensive word for the referee.

The emotional outburst did not help immediately; Tsitsipas still took the set. And in the third game, for the time being, he was not going to concede, continuing to regularly win games on his serve. With the score 5:4 in favor of Medvedev, the opponent suddenly fell apart and frankly botched the ending. And then the judge decided to prove that he was not so bad for working in the semi-finals – he gave Stefanos a warning for constantly talking with his father, and at the same time assigned a supervisor with knowledge of Greek to the Greek boxing. Having lost the chance for secret negotiations, Daniil’s opponent failed the fourth set, losing 1:6. In the end, the Russian went to the final, whom Rafael Nadal was waiting for in the main game of the Australian tournament.