2018 Miami Open first round

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Post-match encounter at the 2018 Miami Open on YouTube. Medvedev yelled to Tsitsipas: "Man, you better shut your fuck up, okay? Hey Stefanos, you wanna look at me and talk? You have some problems, you go emergency toilet for five minutes? ... And then you hit let and you don't say sorry, you think you are a good kid? Look at me! Hey, look at me, huh? You don't look at me? He started it. He started it. He started it. Yes, he started it. He said 'bullshit Russian', you think this is normal? I answer him because he doesn't know how to fight. He's a small kid who doesn't know how to fight. If he doesn't say anything, I have no problems with him. But if he says something to me and he wants to fight, he needs to do it. But he doesn't look at me after".[2][3]

Close

Medvedev and Tsitsipas first played each other in the first round of the 2018 Miami Open, when both were ranked outside of the top 50 and were 22 and 19 years old respectively. Medvedev made a comeback after dropping the first set to win 6–2 in the third. However, the match is better remembered for a verbal altercation after the players shook hands.^[4][5] Russian Medvedev, upset about some of his opponent's etiquette during the match and especially that Greek Tsitsipas had muttered "bullshit Russian" at the net, yelled at Tsitsipas from his bench, "Man, you better shut your [sic] fuck up, okay?" He then got up and began complaining that Tsitsipas had taken a long bathroom break (Medvedev also took one) and took issue with Tsitsipas not apologizing for hitting the net cord during a point. As the chair umpire intervened, Tsitsipas quietly packed his bag to leave the court while Medvedev continued, "Look at me... He started it... He's a small kid who doesn't know how to fight".^[5][6][7][8]

Tsitsipas later said the "overall ambience" after the match was overly hostile.^[9] Of the "bullshit Russian" remark, he has said that Medvedev had been chiding him midmatch for not apologizing for hitting the net cord, but that he "did get pissed and said what I said, which I do regret".^[10]

In another interview, both players seemed to have moved past the incident. Medvedev said, "I do think that it's completely normal when something like this can happen, I mean, you're going to spend fifteen years on the tour and you're going to have some hot moments".^[11]

Tsitsipas, who was interviewed separately, said "I think it's also good for our sport to have such things... It makes it more colorful, more exciting for the fans, not that my intention was to do that, but you can always see things from their bright side".^[11]

2019 ATP Finals round-robin

Tsitsipas scored his first win over Medvedev in their sixth meeting, in the group stage of the 2019 ATP Finals, an event that Tsitsipas eventually won. Tsitsipas never faced break point in the match, winning a close tiebreak in the first set and breaking Medvedev's serve once in the second.^[12] He said afterward, "It's a victory that I craved for a long time now".^[10]

2022 Australian Open semifinal

At the 2022 Australian Open, No. 2 seed Medvedev and No. 4 seed Tsitsipas met in the semifinals. Both players received fines from the ATP because of this match, which was a rematch of their 2021 semifinal that Medvedev won in straight sets. Medvedev was fined AU$12,000 (about US$8,400) for unsportsmanlike conduct toward chair umpire Jaume Campistol. During a changeover in the second set, after dropping his serve with a double fault, Medvedev erupted in frustration, yelling repeatedly at the umpire, "His father can talk every point? Bro, are you stupid? His father can talk every point?! ... Can his father talk every point?!"^[13][14][15] He later called Campistol a "small cat" for not citing his opponent for on-court coaching.^[14][15] In fact Tsitsipas's father Apostolos, who often gets coaching warnings at his son's matches, was shouting finable advice (in Greek) from the player's box, something tournament officials eventually laid bare in the fourth set in a "sting operation" using Greek umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore. Tsitsipas failed to win another game after he was given a coaching warning and fined AU$5,000 (about US$3,500).^[14][15][16] Medvedev managed to dial in on return as the match went on, winning 7–6^(7–5), 4–6, 6–4, 6–1.^[15][17]

Postmatch, Medvedev regretted his reaction to the umpire, saying "I think we can say it was funny, but I was definitely out of my mind".^[16]

2022 Cincinnati Masters semifinal

Tsitsipas beat Medvedev at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters semifinals. Tsitsipas won the first set in a close tiebreak. Medvedev answered back with a 6–3 scoreline in the second set, before Tsitsipas also took the third set with the same scoreline, winning the match. The scoreline was 7–6^(8–6), 3–6, 6–3. It was his second hardcourt win over Medvedev. Tsitsipas used an all-court game and approached the net plenty to overcome the Russian's deep-lying defensive game.^[18] Tsitsipas would ultimately lose to Borna Ćorić in the final in straight sets.

2022 ATP Finals round-robin

Though neither would ultimately make it out of the group stage, Medvedev and Tsitsipas faced off in a win-or-go-home match at the 2022 ATP Finals. After Tsitsipas took the first set relatively comfortably, Medvedev saved three match points in a "dramatic" second-set tiebreaker that he captured on his own fourth set point. However, up a break at the end of the third set, Medvedev failed to serve out the match, partly due to an untimely pair of double faults, and Tsitsipas cruised through the decisive tiebreaker, winning 6–3, 6–7^(11–13), 7–6^(7–1).^[19][20]

2023 Italian Open semifinal

At the start of the tournament, a fan shared a video showing Medvedev and Tsitsipas passing on a narrow walkway, appearing not to acknowledge each other.^[21][22] They would go on to face each other in the semifinal. During the match, Tsitsipas got into a verbal altercation with his mother, Julia Apostoli, as she was shouting coaching advice to him in Russian.^[23] As a result of their disagreement, Apostoli left Tsitsipas’s designated box and went to sit in the stands behind Medvedev’s box.^[24] After winning the match 7–5, 7–5, Medvedev did a dance in celebration, reminiscent of Tsitsipas’s celebration after his win over Medvedev in Cincinnati.^[25][26] When asked about this celebration in an interview following the match, Tsitsipas said, "[It] was fun. I wasn’t mad or upset or anything regarding that. I did the same a few months ago".^[25] In the same interview, he went on to compliment Medvedev, saying, "The consistency and the power that he was able to put out there [...] he gave me a fresh idea of who he now is on this surface".^[25]