Athletistic / Tennis. On January 24, 2024, Daniil Medvedev reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the third time in his career. The meeting with the Pole Hubert Hurkacz ended with a victory of the Russian in five sets with the score of 7:6 (7-4), 2:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:4 and, as This is always the case with Medvedev, it was full of emotions.

In the middle of the match, a scandalous episode occurred, for which Hurkac should have been severely punished by the organizers. In the third set, after another mocking shortcut from Medvedev, the Pole could not hold back and immediately after the lost rally he threw his racket at Daniil. Hurkach missed the Russian, but even the action itself should be punished. However, the judge and representatives of the tournament organizer simply ignored Hubert’s actions. Opponents already know that when Daniil starts to get nervous, his level of play drops. This is why stories like this happen again and again.

Photo source: screenshot from the show

Daniil has his main opponent on the ATP circuit: Stefanos Tsitsipas. Medvedev has not had good relations with the Greek for many years, and even the recent Netflix film, in which Alexander Zverev almost accuses Danya of all mortal sins, does not make him a principled rival for the Russian. The history of the conflict between Medvedev and Tsitsipas began in 2018, when the Greek, after losing a match against Dana at the Miami Masters, allowed himself to rudely insult his opponent, calling him a “damn Russian”. But the culmination of this conflict was the semi-final match of the 2022 Australian Open.

Daniil was the favorite of this meeting, since a few months ago he won his first (and so far only) Grand Slam tournament – the US Open – and was significantly ahead of the Greek in terms of victories at personal meetings (6-2). But this time, it was Medvedev who had to take revenge.

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The two tennis players arrived at the match with fire in their eyes. In the first set, the Russian and the Greek created magic on the court, not even allowing each other to breathe and bringing it all to the tiebreaker. Danya started the first set tiebreaker poorly, but managed to come back from 1:4 down and win the set – 7-5 in the tiebreaker. But beyond tennis, viewers were interested in the behavior of Tsitsipas’ team. As filming progressed, Stefanos’ father and part-time personal trainer constantly gave his son advice. According to ATP rules, any tipping during matches is prohibited and punishable by fines. But the judge simply refused to note this violation on the part of Tsitsipas’ team and turned a blind eye.

Photo source: Australian Open

Already in the second set, Medvedev’s patience was multiplied by zero. With a score of 4:4 in the matches, the Russian made a mistake and began to panic. For this he rightly received a warning from the judge, but the questions put to the judge were about something else. Why was Medvedev punished for his first offense, while Tsitsipas still remained “clean”? After that, Danya rudely addressed the referee on the tower:

– Why am I being punished? Can you tell your father all the pranks? Are you stupid? Tsitsipas’ father tells all the pranks! Could his father behave like this? Can his father tell all the pranks? Answer my question. My God, you are just a terrible judge! Look at me, I’m talking to you. Give him a warning: his father tells all the pranks. And you gave me a warning for no reason– shouted Danya during the break between matches.

After this nervous breakdown, Medvedev lost the set, after which he again turned to the judge. He asked the referee to give Stefanos a warning and said that otherwise the referee would be a “pussy” to him. In English slang, this phrase means cowardly. It should be noted that the referee reacted calmly to the Russian’s two tirades and no longer fined him.

During the break between sets, Medvedev calmed down. Having calmed down, Danya took the initiative in the match, won the third set (6: 4) and then defeated Steph in the next match – 6: 1. It’s funny that in the fourth set, already with Medvedev’s total advantage, the judge punished Tsitsipas for his father’s behavior. After the match, Daniil apologized to the referee, but stressed that such behavior from Tsitsipas’ team was unacceptable. The Greek, in turn, did his best to avoid journalists’ questions about this incident and said a few months later that he and Medvedev “will never be friends.”

In the semifinals of AO-2024, Daniil Medvedev will play with the winner of the match between Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and German Alexander Zverev. If Carlitos wins, we are unlikely to see any scandals during his match with Danya. But if Zverev wins… In that case, the semi-final of the Melbourne tournament could prove to be just as hot as it was in 2022.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic


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