By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday October 9, 2024
The connection between Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas was fairly dangerous from the beginning. Their first assembly at Miami in 2018 went viral due to the dangerous 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 group, 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 beneath).
“I think about him somebody that I respect on the tour, rather more than I did earlier than,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “We have had some heated issues on the courtroom previously, however I feel these issues have resolved themselves over time, and clearly we additionally had the time to talk about these issues and have a typical understanding of why this stuff occur.”
26-year-old Tsitsipas says it’s higher to place the dangerous blood within the rearview. Right here’s how he explains it.
“I at all times need to resolve issues like that, I do not need to go away them,” he mentioned. “It took some time, clearly, a fairly very long time, but it surely’s good to form of get it out of the way in which, and ensure our tennis brings peace as an alternative of a struggle. It is a struggle zone if you’re on the market on the courtroom making an attempt 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 an ideal appreciation for Medvedev’s tennis over time, and admits that he didn’t at all times see the fantastic thing about the Russian’s recreation.
“I feel there are loads of issues that he has introduced into the sport which are, I might think about, fairly unorthodox, as a result of you have not seen loads of gamers previously, play the way in which that he does,” he mentioned. “Which is, in actual fact, after occupied with it, previously I may need mentioned some imply stuff about his recreation, however after really occupied with these issues, I feel I used to be utterly unsuitable in that.
“There’s loads of fascinating issues in his recreation that he brings which are very completely different from different gamers. I feel 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 when it comes to 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 thus far to the sport, and I feel loads of generations are going to keep in mind that.”
