"He's not the most mature person anyways" - Tsitsipas blasts Medvedev following Australian Open loss

Stefanos Tsitsipas did not mince words when describing Daniil Medvedev following their Australian Open semifinal, a match that saw the Russian escape with a four-set victory after a tempestuous tirade with the umpire.

Medvedev exploded at chair official Jaume Campistol at the end of the second set at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, accusing the umpire of turning a blind eye to Tsitsipas receiving coaching from his father, Apostolos, who was sitting in the player’s box. The Russian demanded that Tsitsipas be given a code violation for the infringement as players are not allowed to be coached during matches.

After Campistol refused, a furious Medvedev called him “a small cat” in an outburst which was soon shared widely on social media. The 25-year-old was somewhat vindicated as Tsitsipas was handed a coaching violation later in the match for supposedly receiving advice from the sidelines. That came as Medvedev regained his composure to win in four sets, 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 6-1, setting up a final with Rafael Nadal on Sunday.

Following his loss, Tsitsipas claimed that the Russian still had some growing up to do.

“It’s for sure funny,” said the Greek when asked about the outburst during his post-match press conference. “I don’t pay attention to this stuff. I know players like to do this stuff to throw you off mentally, it could be a tactic. He’s not the most mature person anyways.”

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The 23-year-old staunchly denied that he had received coaching, claiming he could not even make out what his father was saying amid the noise from the Melbourne crowd.

“I wasn’t receiving coaching. I mean, I can’t hear anything when I’m playing, it’s impossible, having the crowd being so loud at every point,” said the fourth seed. “You have to have super hearing to be able to hear what your coach says.”

The Greek ace admitted however that he had spoken to his father about it.

“I've talked to him about it. I've tried, spent countless hours trying to figure it out with him, but it's part of him,” said Tsitsipas after he missed out on the chance of a second Grand Slam final appearance. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep receiving coaching violations, even though I will never listen to any single thing he says.

“But it’s fine, they can do that if they want, if they believe it’s right. That was also one of the reasons last year I went out publicly on one of my social media platforms and said that I think coaching should be allowed, simply because coaches do it anyways.”