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World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev said Rafael Nadal is like a "perfect guy" as he never loses his cool or composure on the court. Medvedev had a major outburst after losing the second set to Stefanos Tsitsipas during their Australian Open semifinal match.
Medvedev unloaded on the chair umpire after the second set as he felt Tsitsipas was getting coached constantly but receiving no coaching violations. "Well, we know how Rafa's mentality in life is like. I don't know if I should call it this way, but he's like a perfect guy, you know, never -- when you ask him why he doesn't break a racket, like always the story about the controller when he was young and Toni told him you shouldn't do it," Medvedev explained.
"It's tough, you know, I know many of my friends who break controllers who don't even play tennis. But people can get mad at many things, and I feel like, yeah, Rafa, he's amazing for this, Yeah, don't have much to add. He's just amazing about this."
Tsitsipas on the Medvedev outburst
AFter the match, world No.
4 Tsitsipas was asked about Medvedev's rant. "Well, it's for sure funny (smiling). It's funny. I don't pay attention to the stuff. I know players like to do this stuff to throw you off mentally. Could be maybe a tactic. It's all right.
He's not the most mature person anyways," Tsitsipas said after the match. When asked about Tsitsipas' comments, Medvedev said: "No, I don't want to get too much into this, because again, I was actually, not against Stefanos or during this match, nothing, and I feel like I didn't talk about him.
I just talked about the rule, because again, I don't know what his father is saying." In the end, Medvedev beat Tsitsipas in four sets to set up a final against former world No. 1 Nadal.