Daniil Medvedev has denied the claims of allegedly chanting “karma” in celebration after defeating Alexander Zverev in 5-set marathon Australian Open semifinal battle.
While refuting the suggestions of on-court taunting, the Russian didn’t reveal specifically what he said but described it as something related to his box and mentality rather than about Zverev. Medvedev showed tremendous mental and physical grit as he came from behind (trailing two sets to love) to prevail against the bitter rival.
The feud between Russian and German has been a talking point at the Australian Open following the recent release of S2 of Netflix’s Break Point tennis documentary series. In one episode, Zverev is seen making a comeback from the ankle injury he sustained at the 2022 Roland Garros and documents his loss against the 27-year-old at the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters. The World No. 6 was critical of the Medvedev’s unfair behavior following their match in Monaco in European clay swing.
“Look, Medvedev is one of the best players in the world, but I also think that a lot of things that Medvedev does are frustrating at times,” Zverev said.
“He’s someone who knows how to play with the head of the opponent. I think there are a lot of unfair things happening in the game that he uses quite well to his advantage.
“I like to win and lose by playing tennis. I’m not someone who tries to do dirty games just to put your opponent off. That’s not how I was taught the game.”
Later in the episode, Zverev attributed Medvedev’s surprise R1 loss to Thiago Seyboth Wild at 2023 French Open to “Karma” – a divine intervention because of his apparent “dirty” tactics.
Lip-readers on social media have suggested that Medvedev after closing the match “karma” shouts while addressing his box, a reference to his rival’s comments in the documentary. When the 2021 US Open Champion was quizzed about his post-match comments in the press talk, he denied the charge and insisted that that’s not how he wanted to celebrate.
“No, no, no, it was not it. I tried to not go on Twitter but I went on Twitter and I saw it all over the place. I was like, Oh, my God,” the World No. 3 explained.
“As I said just right now, I don’t want to go, let’s say — because it’s a little bit like when you try, you know, touch someone and then he touches you back and then you touch someone.
“I want to, you know, I had my moments, probably the most with [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, and even with him we seem to be, you know, we’re not friends but we seem to respect each other more than before.
“So same [with Zverev]. It was something related to my team. Something about mentality. So, yeah, nothing to do with this. I would not be happy to do it this way.”
In what will be his third Australian Open final, Medvedev will battle world No 4 Jannik Sinner on Sunday for a second Grand Slam title since clinching the US Open in 2021.