Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have had some disagreements in the past, but the Russian admitted that they have a respectful relationship now.
Most tennis fans are well aware of how this rivalry came to be. It all started a few years ago when they verbally clashed after a match Medvedev won. Tsitsipas called him a 'Bulls**t Russian,' which prompted Medvedev to want to get into him.
The umpire stopped any further escalation when Medvedev called the Greek player 'a small kid who doesn't know how to fight.' They seemed to be rather cold towards each other after that but got over that as the years went on.
Some other instances reignited the rivalry, such as the players dancing after beating each other, but the Russian recently admitted that the relationship is completely normal and respectful.
The former world no. 1 further commented that it's hard to build friendships on the ATP Tour as he only has a handful himself.
"In tennis, in general, being very close friends with someone is difficult. You need to know each other for a long time, have common interests - like Andrey (Rublev), Karen (Khachanov) and Roman (Safiullin) . It seems to me that now we (himself and Tsitsipas) have completely normal, respectful relations."
Medvedev didn't rule out some future controversy because, ultimately, they are both fierce competitors battling for the same thing, and that's a win in the match, so there's a chance something may happen on the tennis court.
Their most recent exchange of opinions was a dancing competition, which was funny to observe and pretty harmless, all things considered. Since then, though, everything has trended positively between them.
"Who knows, maybe there will be some more controversy on the court. But, in my opinion, everything developed only in a positive direction for us. Now we respect each other as athletes and treat each other completely calmly."
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