By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday October 9, 2024
The connection between Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas was fairly unhealthy from the beginning. Their first assembly at Miami in 2018 went viral due to the unhealthy blood, and within the years that adopted it remained fairly frosty.
However today, due to some high quality time spent on the identical Laver Cup crew, and the knowledge that comes with age, the pair are in a a lot better place.
Tsitsipas spoke of his emotions for the previous World No.1 this week, forward of their spherical of 16 encounter in Shanghai (received by Medvedev, 7-6(3), 6-3 – highlights under).
“I contemplate him somebody that I respect on the tour, far more than I did earlier than,” Tsitsipas stated. “We have had some heated issues on the courtroom previously, however I believe these issues have resolved themselves over time, and clearly we additionally had the time to discuss these issues and have a standard understanding of why these items occur.”
26-year-old Tsitsipas says it’s higher to place the unhealthy blood within the rearview. Right here’s how he explains it.
“I all the time need to resolve issues like that, I do not need to go away them,” he stated. “It took some time, clearly, a fairly very long time, nevertheless it’s good to sort of get it out of the way in which, and ensure our tennis brings peace as an alternative of a battle. It is a battle zone once you’re on the market on the courtroom attempting to, clearly, struggle your finest and clearly attempt to get the win, however I really feel like tennis ought to unite as an alternative of separate.”
Tsitsipas says that he has gained a terrific appreciation for Medvedev’s tennis over time, and admits that he didn’t all the time see the great thing about the Russian’s sport.
“I believe there are loads of issues that he has introduced into the sport which are, I’d contemplate, fairly unorthodox, as a result of you have not seen loads of gamers previously, play the way in which that he does,” he stated. “Which is, in truth, after serious about it, previously I may need stated some imply stuff about his sport, however after really serious about these issues, I believe I used to be fully unsuitable in that.
“There’s loads of fascinating issues in his sport that he brings which are very totally different from different gamers. I believe that is what makes him distinctive as a participant, since you do not see gamers like him fairly often, and it offers tennis one other dimension by way of how it may be performed and the way in a different way it may be crafted. So, that is positively one thing that he has supplied to date to the sport, and I believe loads of generations are going to keep in mind that.”