The hot antecedent Zverev-Medvedev before the Australian Open semi-final: “He is one of the dirtiest tennis players in the world”

The Russian Daniel Medvedev (3) and German Alexander Zverev (6) will meet for the nineteenth time on the professional circuit, but the first in a Slam. Friday’s semi-final (5:30am Argentine time, with ESPN television) hides a warm background which ended with a Strong accusation from the Germanwho went down in history and months later regretted his statements.

We don’t have to go back too far, because the episode occurred at the thousandth Monte Carlo Masters, on the clay tour before Roland Garros. In the round of 16 Medvedev went to the bathroom without permission when he was behind.

Furthermore, out of frustration, the Russian tennis player removed one of the posts holding up the net and responded to the audience in the stands by making a gesture of silence.

In the end Medvedev won the match and Zverev, in a press conference, spoke directly against his attitude: “He’s one of the dirtiest tennis players in the world. I try to take sportsmanship and fair play very seriously, he doesn’t. He took bathroom breaks when it couldn’t be done. I’m very disappointed in him as a tennis player. Athlete.”.

The Russian wasn’t far behind and responded the next day: “What happened yesterday, that stick thing? Did that make him say what he said? And that bathroom thing, well, I wanted to pee. What do you want me to do? I go to the bathroom, lose the next two games, he it’s to win the game and says I’m going to the bathroom so I can play worse. Sascha lives in his own world.”.

Months later, in the cold, Zverev lowered the decibels. “I shouldn’t have said these things in the press conference, it was a mistake on my part. I take fair play very seriously and what he did bothered me, but I should have addressed it face to face with him”he confided.

The Russian has a favorable head-to-head score of 11-7 and has recently proved infallible against the German, after taking five of the six meetings held during 2023. “It bothered me a lot in the last year. A lot of the matches were extremely close, obviously. You know, he had a lot of confidence last year, he played the best tennis of his life.”Zverev acknowledged.

Both tennis players will need an excellent serve and will risk more than necessary to avoid putting a strain on a body damaged by the two five-set matches that each had in the previous rounds.

The Muscovite achieved victory in the final round against the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori and the enamel Hubert Hurkacz (9), while the German did the same against the Slovakian in the qualifiers Luca Klein and the English Cameron Norrie (19), before putting the Spaniard out of the race Carlos Alcaraz.

Medvedev could get his ticket to what would be his third Australian Open final and Zverev could become the third German, behind compatriots Boris Becker and Rainer Schuettler, to reach the final in Melbourne.