“I have nothing against Holger”: Medvedev quarreled with Rune, but reached the semi-finals of the Masters in Indian Wells

Daniil Medvedev remained the only representative of Russia at the prestigious tournament in Indian Wells.

After a difficult match in the fourth round with Grigor Dimitrov, the Moscow native broke the resistance of Holger Rune in two sets and made it to the Masters semi-finals for the first time since May last year.

Then he took the title in Rome, beating the Dane in the decisive match.

The reporting meeting was not easy for the fourth racket in the world.

After the game, Daniil complained about the strong wind, which prevented him from demonstrating beautiful tennis.

Nevertheless, several games in the first set turned out to be quite spectacular.

In one of them, which lasted almost nine minutes, Medvedev fought off three break points and finally took the point with an ace.

On a psychological upswing, he achieved success on Rune’s serve, but after that he immediately gave up “his” game.

However, the Russian still retained the ending of the game, achieving a break with the score 5:5, and then not allowing his opponent to take a single rally at the reception.

At the very beginning of the second set, a scandal almost broke out.

In one of the episodes, Rune forced Medvedev to go to the net, and then played him straight to the body.

And everything would have been fine—not such situations happen on the court—but the Russian did not wait for the Dane’s apology and was quite indignant at his behavior.

He even showed Holger a characteristic gesture meaning “look at me.”

After this, the audience began to whistle in displeasure and the referee on the tower had to intervene in the situation.

He assured that he saw Rune make an apologetic gesture, after which the tennis players briefly discussed the situation at the net and shook hands.

“No, I have nothing against Holger.

I just didn’t see him apologize after he punched me.

Then again, this happens to me sometimes.

You run after a difficult ball, make an oblique shot, hit the line - in fact, this is an excellent tactic for dealing with an opponent.

Then you apologize and forget about it,” Medvedev commented on the incident.

Immediately after the outburst of emotions, the Russian lost his serve, but then took four games in a row and, in fact, decided the outcome of the confrontation.

Daniil's next opponent will be Tommy Paul, who has lost only one set in the USA so far.

In the quarterfinals, the American met with Casper Ruud and, after success in the first game, gave him the second, but then rallied and brought the match to victory in the final.

And before that, the 17th racket of the world defeated Luca Nardi, the same lucky loser who knocked Novak Djokovic out of the fight.

Plus, Paul will have the fans on his side.

However, so far the US representative has never managed to defeat Medvedev - both head-to-head meetings were left to the Russian.

Previously, they met in the second round of Roland Garros in 2021 and in the opening round of the tournament in Beijing in 2023, which Daniil eventually won.

Despite this statistical advantage, the 2020 US Open winner is still serious about the upcoming battle.

He noted that the opponent is holding an excellent tournament and to win he will need to give his best, which is what he plans to do.

Daniil also emphasized that he plans to reduce the number of competitions this season, but will try to perform as well as possible at each one.

“The biggest goals are the Grand Slams and the Olympic Games.

I’ll try my best on them and try to give it my all,” the 28-year-old tennis player promised.

And in the second semi-final, a serious confrontation is expected between the second and third rackets of the planet - Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

The last two fights were left to the Italian, and the Spaniard will have to make a lot of efforts to reverse the unpleasant trend.

Unfortunately, there are no Russians left in the women's section of the bracket.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova finished her performance at the 1/8 final stage, losing to Marta Kostyuk in two sets.

Moreover, this is the second defeat in a row for a native of Samara from a Ukrainian.

Most recently, their paths crossed in the quarterfinals in San Diego.

And after Pavlyuchenkova, the 21-year-old from Kiev forced Anastasia Potapova to cover her racket, and also gave her the steering wheel in the first set.

In the second game, the Russian lost 0:3, but was able to pull herself together and equalized the score (5:5), but then lost two games in a row, and with them the match.

Kostyuk’s next opponent will be Iga Swiatek.

Daria Kasatkina did not even reach the quarterfinals, losing to world number 49 Yuan Yue.

The girls fought on the court for 2.5 hours.

The Russian took the first set and also led 3:1 with a break in the second, but after that her game completely went wrong.

She allowed the Chinese woman not only to regain her balance, but also to take the lead (5:4), and at the decisive moment she gave up her serve.

In the third game, Yuan Yue already led 3:1 and, unlike her opponent, did not squander her advantage, but brought the set and the match to victory.