No love lost between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev who had met in the AO’s semi two years in a row.
Both time the Russian won.
Tsitsipas: ‘bulls**t Russian‘
Medvedev ‘You are a small cat’
‘Shut your f**k up’: Aus Open blockbuster to reignite bitter feud after ugly ‘bulls**t Russian’ slur
David Zita from Fox Sports | January 28th, 2022
Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will renew their fierce rivalry when they meet for a spot in the Australian Open final on Friday night.
The pair met at Melbourne Park in the semi-finals in 2021, with Medvedev steamrolling through his opponent in straight sets.
While Tsitsipas was coming off a five-set match that year, this year it’s Medvedev who comes in after a fierce contest, with the world No.2 coming back from two sets down to defeat Felix Auger-Aliassime.
After losing against Medvedev in last year’s Australian Open, Tsitsipas exacted revenge at the French Open, defeating the Russian in straight sets en route to the final, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.
Tsitsipas and Medvedev made headlines back in 2018 at the Miami Open when, in their first official meeting, both hurled insults at each other after some mid-match controversy.
Medvedev took issue with Tsitsipas taking a mid-match toilet break, which was further exacerbated when the latter didn’t apologise when a ball clipped the net after a rally he won.
While Medvedev would prevail in three sets, tempers flared at the net as the pair shook hands.
“Know your place, bulls–t Russian,” Tsitsipas said.
“Man, you better shut your f— up, OK?” Medvedev replied, before standing and beginning to walk towards his opponent while the chair umpire tried to intervene.
“Hey Stefanos, do you want to look at me and talk? You go emergency toilet for five minutes during and then you hit let and you don’t say sorry.
“You think you are a good kid? Look at me. Hey, look at me. You don’t look at me?”
As the chair umpire continued to try cool Medvedev’s temper, the Russian insisted: “he (Tsitsipas) started it, he said ‘Bulls–t Russian’, you think this is normal? I answer him because he doesn’t know how to fight. He’s a small kid who doesn’t know how to fight.”
Asked about the pair’s relationship earlier this week, Tsitsipas replied: “Why him specifically?”
When the reporter explained the two were projected to face each other in the semi-finals, Tsitsipas played a straight bat.
“About our relationship? Well, it‘s fine. It kind of got better after Laver Cup,” he said.
“We haven’t really spoken in the last couple of months, but our relationship is competitors on the court and kind of fighting for the same dream.”
