The Russian Daniil Medvedev and the German representative Alexander Zverev are the main rivals on the court. Daniil leads in personal meetings 11-7. Medvedev extended his lead at the recent ATP Championship Finals in Turin, beating Zverev 7:6, 6:4 in the second round of the group stage match.
The last meeting between Daniil and Alexander passed without scandals, as it sometimes happened before. In addition, quite friendly relations were observed between the players. Zverev said he would be Medvedev’s number one fan on the planet in the Russian’s match against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the third round. For his part, Daniil promised to try to help Alexander get out of the group by beating Alcaraz.
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It didn’t work: Medvedev lost to Carlos (4-6, 4-6) and with him reached the semifinals, where they both lost to Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, respectively. After the meeting with Alcaraz, Daniil regretted not being able to help Zverev leave the group.
Evidently, there was something like a “detente” between the Russian and German tennis players. Alexander confirmed this in his recent interview. Zverev admitted that he was wrong to call Medvedev “the most dishonest player” after the defeat (6-3, 5-7, 6-7) at the Monte Carlo Masters in April this year.
“I regret a little the way I gave this interview. I really believe that in my speech I was referring to a specific victory in the match, and not to all the tennis in it. This is something I really can’t tolerate. A lot of things can be said about me, but I never take a medical timeout, I never go to the bathroom unless I have to. I don’t do any “movements” or anything like that because I just don’t like it. I hate it when opponents do something like that and find it incredibly unsportsmanlike. In the end, I should have walked up to him and said, “Hey, what were you doing? “What the hell,” instead of bringing it up in an interview, he shouldn’t have. But I was disappointed. At that moment I was angry,” Zverev said.
Alexander Zverev
Photo: Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images
What exactly happened in Monte Carlo? Emotions were running high on the court. In the second and third sets, Medvedev returned serve for the match with a score of 4:5. In the decisive tiebreaker, he was left with two match points. The players’ handshake was cold and Daniil at the net told Alexander the following: “I acted like shit, I’m sorry.”
During the match, Medvedev stood out for his ambiguous behavior. For example, he constantly shushed the spectators who supported his opponent and gave them a thumbs up. After losing serve 4:4 in the second set, he removed the stand from the net and threw it onto the court. In the third set, Medvedev left the court with a score of 4-3 and took a bathroom break. At the same time, the Russian managed to return within the 90 seconds allotted to change sides. During the match there were no direct attacks against Zverev, but still Daniil admitted that at some moments he did not behave very professionally and considered it necessary to apologize to his opponent.
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However, Zverev was not affected by Medvedev’s remorse. Alexander harshly criticized Daniil in the post-match interview.
“He is one of the most dishonest players in the world. I take fair play and sports ethics very seriously. He does not do it. He pauses to go to the bathroom at the moment when he can no longer do so. There were 1000 situations in the game where he felt that I was starting to play better, and every time he tried to do something. I am extremely disappointed in him as an athlete. Of course, you can object and say that he shouldn’t distract me. This should not happen to me, and it is completely my fault and my mistake. But I still believe that fair play should always be part of sport,” Zverev said.
Daniil Medvedev
Photo: Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images
Medvedev, after losing to Holger Rune (3-6, 4-6) in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters, parodied Zverev’s cold handshake and told his opponent that he had played dishonestly, too well . That is, Daniel actually ridiculed Alexander. At the press conference, the Russian continued attacking the German tennis player.
“Sasha lives in her own world. Five players already approached me in the locker room and said: “Kamon, Daniil, why are you so dishonest?” When Sasha loses, we can find 25 interviews where she says strange things. When Sasha says someone is playing badly, you say, “she’s okay, great. Look in the mirror.” If he says the same thing a week later, it’s a different story. If he changes his mind, it’s a different story. I can understand. A lot of things can happen after the game. We saw what happened between Mane and Zane (the conflict in the Bayern football team – Championship Note).
I won’t go into details. I just want to say that we were never very friends, maybe only in juniors. But in her congratulatory speeches she talks about some kind of friendship between my wife and me, which hasn’t been the case for a long time. I never said that. So I’m not disappointed at all, but if, again, in a week he continues to say this, I’ll sit down with him in the locker room and say, “Let’s talk about what’s wrong.” Tell me, I’ll tell you and maybe we’ll never talk again and become enemies or something. But now I don’t care much about that,” Medvedev said.
After Monte Carlo, Medvedev and Zverev met on court four times. Daniil beat Alexander in Rome (6-2, 7-6), Beijing (6-4, 6-3) and during the aforementioned final in Turin. Alexander won only at the Cincinnati Masters 6:4, 5:7, 6:4.
Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev have probably resolved their conflict
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
There was no Monte Carlo-level passion in these games. Both tennis players controlled themselves. In Turin there are even some friendly statements. It seems that frequent meetings at major tournaments have allowed Medvedev and Zverev to speak openly and put aside their differences. Alexander began to adopt a calmer attitude towards the defeats of the Russians, Daniil was also not nervous.
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Zverev has now said he regrets attacking Medvedev in Monte Carlo. We can only hope that after this there are no more conflicts in the matches between Alexander and Daniil.
The Medvedev-Zverev poster is one of the loudest on the modern ATP circuit. A German with Russian roots needs to think about how to recover the 7-11 gap in personal meetings. Daniil, for his part, will not allow it and will try to reinforce his advantage over his main rival. Let everything be limited only to intense play on the court.
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