They are not going to become best friends overnight, but Stefanos Tsitsipas admits his relationship with Daniil Medvedev is a lot better these days as they have “resolved” some of their issues.
The pair have had several on-court and off-court spats over the years with Tsitsipas once muttering “bullshit Russian” to Medvedev, who told him “you better shut your [sic] fuck up, okay?”
The Greek also admitted in the past that their “chemistry definitely isn’t the best that you can find on the tour” while Medvedev said “we don’t have a relationship”.
But their chemistry has improved over their years as at the recent Laver Cup Medvedev stated that they don’t “hate each other”, saying: “People tend to exaggerate: ‘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, it’s a funny feeling.”
Tsitsipas has now also opened up about their relationship and his new-found respect for the former world No 1.
“I consider him someone that I respect on the tour, much more than I did before,” he said. “We’ve had some heated things on the court in the past, but I think those things have resolved themselves over time, and obviously we also had the time to speak about those things and have a common understanding of why these things happen.
“I always want to resolve things like that, I don’t want to leave them. It took awhile, obviously, a pretty long time, but it’s good to kind of get it out of the way, and making sure our tennis brings peace instead of a war.
“It’s a war zone when you’re out there on the court trying to, obviously, fight your best and obviously try to get the win, but I feel like tennis should unite instead of separate.”
The Greek was not a fan of Medvedev’s unorthodox game in the past, but he sees things differently now.
He added: “I think there are a lot of, perhaps, things that he has brought into the game that are, I would consider, quite unorthodox, because you haven’t seen a lot of players in the past, you know, play the way that he does.
“Which is, in fact, after thinking about it, in the past I might have said some mean stuff about his game, but after actually thinking about those things, I think I was completely wrong in that.
“There’s a lot of interesting things in his game that he brings that are very different from other players. I think that’s what makes him unique as a player, because you don’t see players like him very often, and it gives tennis another dimension in terms of how it can be played and how differently it can be crafted.
“So, this is definitely something that he has offered so far to the game, and I think a lot of generations are going to remember that.”
