MELBOURNE, Australia – Russian Daniil Medvedev, angry after giving a break to Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, abruptly attacked the referee on Friday before qualifying for the Australian Open final: “How can you referee a half when you are so bad? “, He started.
After losing his face for the first time to allow Tsitsipas to lead 5-4 and serve for a set equalizer, Medvedev received a warning for obscene words.
Sitting on his bench, he then challenged the referee. “Are you crazy? Why (this warning)?”, He fired, before pointing to the referee that he did not say anything when the opponent’s father spoke, according to him, to his son.
“And can his dad talk anywhere?” you are an idiot “, he wondered before repeating three times, raising his voice each time:” His father speaks everywhere! »
“Answer me! His father can talk anywhere? How can you referee a half-time Grand Slam when you’re so bad? Look at me when I’m talking to you!” He continued.
The referee then turned to him asking “What do you want? »
“You are punishing him, his father is talking to him!” “, concluded.
The Greek really received a training warning in the 4th set.
“Code Violation”
“I did not receive any training,” he said. “When I play, I do not hear anything. It is impossible with the noise made by the public. You need to have good hearing to be able to hear what your coach is saying. “.
He also considers himself a “target for a long time” by the referees at this point and claims that he has already raised the issue with his father and coach Apostolos.
“For my father, talking when he’s in action is a form of medicine. And we can not stop it. It does it reflexively. We discussed it, I spent hours trying to find a solution with him, but it’s true. “I’m sure I will receive more training, although I will not hear a single word from him,” commented Tsitsipas.
For his part, Medvedev then explained his reaction on the pitch.
Apart from the fact that he was indeed upset by the loss of his service, he stressed that Apostolos “spoke Greek before each return”.
I do not know, maybe he said “Come”, and there is no problem. “I do not know what he was saying, but if it was coaching, it is not a deception, but a violation of the code,” Medvedev said.
