Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are extra than simply opponents. They are like household.
But that doesn’t matter when they’re standing throughout the web. One participant wins, the opposite loses. There is not any in between. The athletes each need the identical factor, however just one can earn it. That shall be no completely different when Medvedev and Rublev conflict inside Arthur Ashe Stadium for a spot within the US Open semi-finals on Wednesday.
The two males are fierce opponents. But a sure end result or scoreline is not going to change the truth that Rublev is the godfather of Medvedev’s 11-month-old daughter.
“I feel we’re actually shut mates. I feel we now have an important relationship even when on the courtroom we’re huge opponents,” Medvedev mentioned. “I feel nothing goes to, let’s name it, come between us to separate us in actual life. We’re actually shut.”
Nearly 20 years in the past, Medvedev and Rublev have been like several pair of juniors competing. They would pull out each trick within the e book. They would lob each other from the baseline to attempt to win. The participant dropping would typically whine, even cry. The different would do all the pieces to maintain it that means. What child likes to lose, anyway?
“Both of us have been loopy on courtroom. Destroying the racquets, complaining,” Rublev mentioned on the 2020 US Open. “What I keep in mind from him, he was all the time one of many largest fighters that I ever noticed in my life since he was, I do not know, seven years previous. He might play lobs possibly for hours simply to win. I do not know. I keep in mind we had just a few battles after we have been fully children.”
According to Medvedev, he didn’t have the energy and weapons in his recreation as a junior to complete factors.
“I used to be all the time on follow making an attempt to play aggressive, possibly going to the web and stuff like this. Then there was a match going, I began to do it, I’m dropping 3-0, the match is as much as 4, the set. I’m like, ‘No, again to lobs’,” Medvedev recalled in 2020. “I all the time hated to lose. Maybe even the higher mentality for a child could be to attempt to persist with his recreation plan or one thing like this. At the identical time it is all the time good whenever you wish to win additionally.”
As Medvedev and Rublev grew older and commenced to advance by way of the professional ranks, their relationship developed, too. Being a fly on the wall once they banter backwards and forwards could be like a front-row seat to a comedy present.
“Andrey gets really, really angry if you call him Jannik because he looks like Jannik Sinner a little bit,” Medvedev mentioned throughout the break in play throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. “During this Australian Open he comes into the locker room and I said, ‘Hi Jannik, how are you?’ He got angry, he [went] away for 10 minutes, came back 10 minutes later, and goes, ‘You are Davydenko then!'”
Medvedev and Rublev at follow in Monte-Carlo. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
When collectively, Medvedev and Rublev are all the time having enjoyable. Sometimes, they’re on the identical facet of that enjoyable. Other occasions, it’s on the different’s expense. But that camaraderie has expanded past friendship. Rublev is the godfather of Medvedev’s first baby, who was born final October.
“He’s very variety,” Medvedev mentioned of Rublev. “He’s spiritual, in order that’s necessary to be a godfather. So it was form of a simple resolution.”
“Obviously we constructed our relationship due to tennis,” Rublev mentioned. “But now it is already greater than tennis. We know one another, I do not know, since we have been six possibly or one thing.
“We have an important relationship. He’s tremendous trustworthy, tremendous relaxed. It’s tremendous simple to speak with him. Very humble. At the identical time he is actually, actually humorous. Then whenever you spend time with him, you all the time have enjoyable.”
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But on Wednesday, that relationship is not going to stop the celebrities from doing all the pieces of their energy to succeed in the US Open semi-finals. Medvedev takes a 5-2 Lexus ATP Head2Headvert collection lead into the conflict, in addition to an edge in big-match expertise.
The 27-year-old gained the 2021 US Open and is 6-1 in main quarter-finals. What could be stunning is that Rublev has truly been to the quarter-finals at Grand Slam tournaments extra typically — eight occasions — however has misplaced all of them. When Medvedev has been in a position to buckle down within the highest-pressure moments and depend on his pesky baseline recreation, Rublev has struggled to keep away from spiraling uncontrolled with unforced errors.
But the 25-year-old has gained two of their previous three conferences and can attempt to safe the most important breakthrough of his profession after earlier this season claiming his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo. As shut as Medvedev and Rublev are, that won’t matter inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s nice to have somebody like this on tour as a result of generally it may be not simple. You journey, journey, journey. To have a pal like that is nice. Not rather more so as to add,” Medvedev mentioned. “But once more, on the courtroom we each wish to win. We are usually not going to be mates in two days.”
Source: www.atptour.com