Daniil Medvedev loses cool with umpire on way to Australian Open final

Daniil Medvedev overcame a mid-match meltdown to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas and set up an Australian Open final clash with Rafael Nadal.

Medvedev’s 7-6 (5) 4-6 6-4 6-1 victory means he will play for a second successive grand slam title after his maiden success at the US Open last summer.

It is also the second year in a row he has made the final at Melbourne Park, having lost to Novak Djokovic 12 months ago.

But much of the attention will focus on Medvedev’s extraordinary rant at the umpire late in the second set, when he accused Tsitsipas of receiving coaching from his father Apostolos.

“I don’t think bad emotions help me too much,” he said afterwards. “Many times I lose the match because of this. As soon as I’d done it I was like, ‘That was a big mistake’, but I’m happy I managed to re-concentrate at the beginning of the third set. I tried my best and I’m happy it worked.”

Tsitsipas Senior has been repeatedly warned for coaching – and was later in this match as well – but it was mainly an indication of just what this match meant to Medvedev.

There is bad blood between the world number two and Tsitsipas dating back to a fiery clash in Miami four years ago and exacerbated by their very different characters.

Medvedev thrives off confrontation, while Tsitsipas is a far more sensitive and introverted man who found it difficult to handle the vitriol that was generated from the row over his long toilet breaks at the US Open last year.

This was their ninth meeting and second in a row in the semi-finals here, with Medvedev winning comfortably 12 months ago after Tsitsipas’ big victory over Nadal.

The Greek came into the tournament with doubts over his fitness following elbow surgery, but he was in top form against Jannik Sinner