Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev had a rough start, but they've managed to reach a courteous level now.
Medvedev and Tsitsipas are very competitive players, and they broke out at about the same time. All of that contributed to their early development of a pretty fierce rivalry, which was ignited by a verbal spat at the Miami Open in 2018.
Since then, they've had moments when they made fun of each other, such as when they danced after beating one another. They also had some really cold interactions on Tour, but overall, their relationship is in a better spot compared to the start.
Tsitsipas recently opened up about the Miami Open incident when talking to Sport Express, admitting that he mishandled it because of his immaturity, which contributed to the toxicity of the rivalry early.
"I won’t say that we talk a lot, but the relationship is better than it was years ago. We both put what was happening behind us. At one time in Miami, during our game, in 2018, I think, a strange incident happened. When I hit, I hit the net and after three more hits I won that rally."
"Daniil wanted me to apologize. I was very angry when he asked for this, because it is my business whether to apologize or not. At the same time, I simply forgot about it because it was a long rally and I was focused on the ball."
According to the Greek player, it was that one moment, when players misunderstood themselves, that created all of the tension, as Medvedev simply wanted to apology, while Tsitsipas forgot about it.
"This created tension at the end of the game that I lost. Although he believed that he should have won, and thought that this was influenced precisely by his demand to apologize. He tried to play “mind games” with me, and I was still very young and immature compared to today."
"Now, faced with a similar situation, I would behave completely differently. And then, having just made his debut on the tour, he was very angry in a sporting way and was turned on even by things that did not require such a reaction."
While it's good that Tsitsipas admitted his own mishandling of the situation, he also mentioned Medvedev's reaction, which he found quite toxic. Thankfully, nothing happened then, and they're both older and wiser now.
"And after the game I told him bad things at the net, which I now regret. But I had a feeling that he wanted to create problems during the game. By that time, I had hardly encountered anything like this and found it very toxic on his part."
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