Daniil Medvedev says it is just not true that he hates Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas but acknowledges that there have been some tense moments with those two in the past and that he would not call them his best friends.
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This past weekend, the three stars joined forces at the Laver Cup to represent Team Europe. While it's a star-studded lineup, some wondered how would it look considering that the 2021 US Open champion had incidents with both players in the past.
In 2018 - when Medvedev and Tsitsipas were at the start of their careers - they got into a post-match argument. Although the Russian won that match, he took exception to what he thought was unfair behavior by the Greek and he even wanted to fight him. Ultimately, the incident didn't escalate further than verbal confrontation. Also, there were some other tense moments between the two.
With Zverev, similar dramatic moments have happened. Most notably, one came after their 2023 Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinal thriller, which the Russian won 3-6 7-5 7-6 (7). At the net, the German gave a very cold handshake. Later, he absolutely unloaded on Medvedev, slamming him as "one of the most unfair players" - which was a pretty big statement to make.
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After losing to Frances Tiafoe in his opening match at this year's Laver Cup, the 28-year-old was asked directly if it was hard for him to sit on the same bench as those two and support them.
No, to be honest, I don't think it's that tough, because we, for sure when we play sometimes in the press conference, we can, you know, say some things. And we're not best friends with them, that's reality, but I think we all have respect for each other. So we're here, we support 100 percent each other, and honestly, at least for me, it's an easy switch," Medvedev said.
Medvedev: We had some fights, but...
When the Medvedev and Tsitsipas incident happened in 2018 Miami, it drew lots of attention - and since they were one of the most promising and talented players at the time - it was brought up every time they were about to play each other again. The same happened with Zverev as the German brutally calling out the Russian following their last year's Monte Carlo match made all the headlines.
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Addressing that, the former world No. 1 didn't try to dismiss their past dramatic situations but also added that people people and the headlines can make it look worse than it actually is.
I think there is, you know, I see this in other sports, in tennis, also, especially with social media, we love to -- something happens, let's say I scream on umpire, that's not good, and then for ten years we put it, TikTok, Instagram, this video, they remake it with music, et cetera, we exaggerate things," the Russian explained.
So what happened with me, Sascha, Stefanos, yeah, we played some matches. Sometimes we had some fights. Sometimes someone said something in the press conference. And it's okay. In one month, we don't remember it too much. We still rivals. But people tend to exaggerate it. Oh, my God, they hate each other. It's such a crazy thing. No, it's okay, we respect each other. Here I think we support each other like never before, and it's a funny feeling.
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What exactly Zverev and Medvedev said after that Monte Carlo match?
After falling just short in a three-hour thriller, the 27-year-old said: "He is one of the most unfair players in the world. I take fair play and sportsmanship very serious. He does not. He takes a toilet break when it's not possible anymore. There are 1000 situations in which he feels that I start to play better and in which he tries to do something every time. I'm extremely disappointed from him as an athlete."
Asked about it, Medvedev didn't agree that he was trying to pull off some dirty tricks and throw the German off his game:
(What) made him say this? Toilet? Well, I wanted to pee. What does he want me to do? And let's take it step by step. So, 3-2 I have like five breakpoints or whatever. He manages to hold. Congrats. Then I make the game 40-Love for me. I go to the toilet, I lose next two games, he's serving for the match. And he's saying I'm going to the toilet to make him play worse? he said.
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Since then, Medvedev and Zverev have played against each other four times and truth be told, there weren't any incidents on the court or during post-match pressers.
