Andrey Rublev claims Stefanos Tsitsipas apologized to him for ATP Finals comments after Daniil Medvedev's sly dig at the Greek
Andrey Rublev recently revealed that Stefanos Tsitsipas apologized to him for his comments after their meeting in last season's ATP Finals.
Rublev and Tsitsipas locked horns in the round robin of the season-ending championships, with the Russian coming back from a set down to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
After the match, the Greek took a dig at his opponent by saying that Rublev made the most out of the "few tools" he has.
Not much was spoken about the incident until the presentation ceremony at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Saturday, March 4. Daniil Medvedev won the tournament by beating compatriot Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-2 in the final and paid tribute to his friend in his winners' speech.
During the speech, Medvedev recalled Tsitsipas' comments at the ATP Finals and expressed his displeasure with them, while also hoping that Rublev would beat the Greek many times.
“I just want to say that I remember not long ago, one player said that he has just a few weapons, and I was reading this and I was like, ‘How can you say this?’" the former World No. 1 said.
"Andrey is one of the most skilful players on the tour, he just didn’t exploit fully his potential but I’m sure that he can win Grand Slams. Hopefully he can beat this guy, who said it, many, many times, and I wish this for sure," he added.
Rublev was asked about Medvedev's veiled message to Tsitsipas during his post-match press conference and the 25-year-old said that it took him a while to realize what the former World No. 1 was talking about.
"I was a bit late over there, to be honest. In the beginning, I didn't understand what he meant. Then I say, Who was the one that was saying that? Then I realized," Rublev said.
Rublev added that he didn't take Tsitsipas' comments personally when he said it. He also revealed that the Australian Open runner-up later apologized to him.
"I don't know, not much to say. When Stefanos said that, I didn't even take it personal because I know I'm also emotional, and I know how you can say some things and do some things when you are under the emotions. I mean, you don't need to walk far away, you can see some moments of my behavior on court that are not really nice," Rublev said.
"Of course, I understand him at that moment, so I didn't even take it personal. Plus, on top of that, later on he come to me and he apologized. Even more - how you say - good from him that he did it. Nothing to say," he added.
Andrey Rublev will next compete at the Indian Wells Masters
Following his defeat to Daniil Medvedev in Dubai, Andrey Rublev will drop a spot to seventh in the ATP rankings.
The Russian will next compete at the Indian Wells Masters, where he will be defending the 360 points he earned last season by reaching the semifinals before losing to Taylor Fritz. The 2022 semifinal run was his best outing at the Masters 1000 event.
Andrey Rublev has a 6-4 record at the tournament and it will be interesting to see how he fares in Indian Wells.