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French Open 2021: Furious Medvedev asks 'where is the Amazon money?'

Daniil Medvedev was not impressed by the empty stands at Court Philippe-Chatrier as he bowed out of the French Open to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

By Ben Spratt
World number two Daniil Medvedev

Paris, June 9: Daniil Medvedev was not impressed by the empty stands at Court Philippe-Chatrier as he bowed out of the French Open to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Medvedev, who had never previously won a match in the main draw at Roland Garros, advanced to the quarterfinals to meet old foe Tsitsipas on Tuesday.

But the 21:00 curfew in Paris meant the match, which started at the same time, was played without a crowd in the French capital.

Tsitsipas seizes straight-sets success against world number two MedvedevTsitsipas seizes straight-sets success against world number two Medvedev

Tsitsipas won 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, but second seed Medvedev was keen to highlight the importance of supporters as he questioned the tournament's motives.

Recapping a scene from Netflix documentary 'Formula 1: Drive to Survive', Medvedev said: "When the pandemic started, they were in Australia ready to race, and they asked Lewis Hamilton what he thought about racing in the conditions the world was in.

"He said: 'I don't know what we are doing here.' And so they asked him: 'Why do you think they make you race?' And he said: 'Cash is king.'

"It was the same here. Our match was definitely the match of the day, so Roland Garros preferred Amazon to people. It's easy as that.

"Actually I want to say that I think it's good when you have sponsors and everything because that's how we tennis players can make money, but actually we've more people this year in Roland Garros, we've Amazon, I don't know if they had it last year, and we get 15 per cent less prize money.

"So the question is: where is the Amazon money?"

It was Medvedev's latest complaint, having had issues with noise elsewhere in the stadium and the camera angle on the big screen during his straight-sets defeat.

But the rest of the post-match media duties largely focused on the end of the contest as an awful underarm serve from the Russian handed fifth seed Tsitsipas victory.

Medvedev described the move as "tactical", but Tsitsipas said: "[It was] a very millennial shot, so true.

"Once he took a short break, I saw he kind of stopped. I felt like there was something coming up, so at that point I think I got prepared for it."

The pair have argued in the past, notably at the Miami Open in 2018 – one of six Medvedev wins in seven meetings prior to this match.

"In other sports, we can see these rivalries where people actually just to heat it up," the world number two said on Tuesday.

"Maybe sometimes they don't even hate each other but they try to say some things to each other during the match or things like that.

"But tennis is not like this, so I don't think it's ever going to be between me and him again any sort of fight or anything.

"I find it maybe a pity because it could be much funnier."

Story first published: Wednesday, June 9, 2021, 9:07 [IST]
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