Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are extra than simply opponents. They’re like household.
However that doesn’t matter when they’re standing throughout the online. One participant wins, the opposite loses. There isn’t a 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 2 males are fierce rivals. However 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 buddies. I feel we now have a fantastic relationship even when on the court docket we’re large rivals,” Medvedev stated. “I feel nothing goes to, let’s name it, come between us to separate us in actual life. We’re actually shut.”
Almost twenty years in the past, Medvedev and Rublev had been like every pair of juniors competing. They’d pull out each trick within the e-book. They’d lob each other from the baseline to attempt to win. The participant shedding would typically whine, even cry. The opposite would do all the things to maintain it that manner. What child likes to lose, anyway?
“Each of us had been loopy on court docket. Destroying the racquets, complaining,” Rublev stated on the 2020 US Open. “What I keep in mind from him, he was at all times one of many largest fighters that I ever noticed in my life since he was, I do not know, seven years outdated. He might play lobs perhaps for hours simply to win. I do not know. I keep in mind we had just a few battles once we had been fully youngsters.”
In keeping with Medvedev, he didn’t have the energy and weapons in his recreation as a junior to complete factors.
“I used to be at all times on apply making an attempt to play aggressive, perhaps going to the online and stuff like this. Then there was a match going, I began to do it, I am shedding 3-0, the match is as much as 4, the set. I am like, ‘No, again to lobs’,” Medvedev recalled in 2020. “I at all times hated to lose. Possibly even the higher mentality for a child could be to attempt to stick with his recreation plan or one thing like this. On the identical time it is at all times good once you need to win additionally.”
As Medvedev and Rublev grew older and commenced to advance via 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 will get actually, actually indignant in the event you name him Jannik as a result of he appears like Jannik Sinner a little bit bit,” Medvedev stated in the course of the break in play in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Throughout this Australian Open he comes into the locker room and I stated, ‘Hello Jannik, how are you?’ He received indignant, he [went] away for 10 minutes, got here again 10 minutes later, and goes, ‘You might be Davydenko then!'”
Medvedev and Rublev at apply in Monte-Carlo. Photograph: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
When collectively, Medvedev and Rublev are at all times having enjoyable. Generally, they’re on the identical facet of that enjoyable. Different occasions, it’s on the different’s expense. However that camaraderie has expanded past friendship. Rublev is the godfather of Medvedev’s first little one, who was born final October.
“He is very form,” Medvedev stated of Rublev. “He is non secular, in order that’s necessary to be a godfather. So it was form of a simple choice.”
“Clearly we constructed our relationship due to tennis,” Rublev stated. “However now it is already larger than tennis. We all know one another, I do not know, since we had been six perhaps or one thing.
“Now we have a fantastic relationship. He is tremendous sincere, tremendous relaxed. It is tremendous straightforward to speak with him. Very humble. On the identical time he is actually, actually humorous. Then once you spend time with him, you at all times have enjoyable.”
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However on Wednesday, that relationship is not going to forestall the celebs from doing all the things of their energy to achieve the US Open semi-finals. Medvedev takes a 5-2 Lexus ATP Head2Head 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 is likely to be shocking 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 capable of 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.
However the 25-year-old has gained two of their previous three conferences and can attempt to safe the largest 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 is nice to have somebody like this on tour as a result of typically it may be not straightforward. You journey, journey, journey. To have a good friend like that is nice. Not far more so as to add,” Medvedev stated. “However once more, on the court docket we each need to win. We aren’t going to be buddies in two days.”
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