(Melbourne) The Russian Daniil Medvedev, angry after giving a break to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, attacked the referee sharply on Friday before qualifying for the Australian Open final: “How can you referee a half? when you’re so bad? “, he launched to him.
Posted at 11:43 a.m.
After losing his face-off for the first time to allow Tsitsipas to lead 5-4 and serve to equalize one innings all, Medvedev was cautioned for uttering obscene words.
Sitting on his bench, he then challenged the referee. ” You are crazy ? Why (this warning)? “, he launched, before pointing out to the referee that he said nothing when the father of his opponent spoke, according to him, to his son.
“And his father can speak at every point?” are you stupid “, he questioned before repeating three times, raising his voice each time: “His father speaks at all points! »
” Answer me ! His dad can talk to every point? How can you referee a Grand Slam half when you’re so bad? Look at me when I talk to you! “, he continued.
The referee then turned to him asking “What do you want? »
“You punish him, his father is talking to him!” “, he concluded.
The Greek actually received a coaching warning in the 4and set.
“Code Violation”
“I did not receive coaching,” he assured afterwards. “When I play, I hear nothing. It is impossible with the noise made by the public. You would have to have great hearing to be able to hear what your coach is saying.
He also considers himself “targeted for a long time” by the referees on this point and claims to have already raised the problem with his father and coach Apostolos.
“For my father, speaking when he is in action is a form of medicine. And we can’t stop it. He does it by reflex. We talked about it, I spent hours trying to find a solution with him, but he is like that. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get more coaching warnings even though I’ll never listen to a single word from him,” Tsitsipas commented.
For his part, Medvedev then explained his reaction on the court.
Apart from the fact that he was indeed pissed off by the loss of his service game, he pointed out that Apostolos “spoke Greek before each of (his) returns”.
“I don’t know, maybe he was saying ‘Come on’, and there’s no problem. I don’t know what he was saying, but if it was coaching, it’s not cheating, but it’s a violation of the code,” Medvedev stressed.