Erste Bank Open Vienna: Medvedev against Tsitsipas - whoever looks, finds
Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet for the 13th time today at the Erste Bank open 2023 in Vienna (live from 2 p.m. on ServusTV in Austria and on Sky in Germany). The Russian makes a much more balanced impression.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Oct 28, 2023, 08:03 am
A question that all international players had to go through in the press conferences at the Erste Bank Open: How high do you rate Dominic Thiem's level? Follow-up question: Will he get back to the top of the world? The answers from Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev basically produced the same result: Thiem's punches were almost at their best again. The rest is difficult to judge.
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This is understandable: remote diagnoses rarely lead to correct results. But more interesting was the self-assessment of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who simply couldn't say (to his credit, he actually wanted to) where he currently stands. After his opening win against Thiem, the Greek seemed satisfied - but still like a seeker.
Badosa supports the Tsitsipas team
On the other side of the spectrum: Daniil Medvedev, who will play the first semi-final against Tsitsipas at 2 p.m. in the Stadthalle today. Medvedev knows exactly where he stands. And what he wants. Namely, not to focus on tennis 24/7. After reaching the semi-finals and winning against Karen Khachanov, the Russian defending champion told Vienna that he was far from obsessed with tennis. Rather, he had to play a game of fantasy football yesterday, Friday at 9 p.m. And it really torments him that a few weeks ago he gave up Mohammed Salah, Liverpool FC's great striker.
So this is the starting position before this 13th duel between Medvedev and Tsitsipas (Meddy leads with 8:4 victories): One is calm itself, the other would like it to be. Maybe the temporary expansion of his team will help Stefanos Tsitsipas: as we hear, Paula Badosa, at least the soul mate of the Greek tennis god, has announced her presence today. In this respect too, the interested observer doesn't really know where he stands. Hopefully this doesn't apply to Stefanos.
Here is the individual tableau in Vienna
Viennamap