There was a frosty exchange between Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev as they shook hands after their match Friday.
After the quarter final clash at Indian Wells, the Danish player couldn’t even bring himself to look at his Russian opponent during their handshake.
It was only after Medvedev apologized for something that had happened during the match that Rune deigned to look at him.
“I didn’t hear you say ‘sorry.’ My apologies,” the Russian said, before Holger Rune responded and then quickly left the arena: “There’s no need to talk about it.”
So, what was the cause of the drama at the net? Midway through the match, there was a moment when Holger Rune hit a ball at Daniil Medvedev, which initially didn’t upset the Russian.
However, he quickly became angry, believing that the Dane had not apologized for the shot. Consequently, the Russian Grand Slam winner made a ‘I’m-watching-you’ gesture and pointed at Rune.
What he hadn’t seen was that the Danish tennis comet had actually already apologized for the incident, which the match umpire also explained to Medvedev.
“He said it. I saw it,” said the umpire, managing to calm the situation.
However, Holger Rune had not forgotten the Russian’s gestures when they met at the net after the match. Even though Medvedev attempted to apologize for his behavior, both during the handshake and in the subsequent press conference.
“It has nothing to do with Holger. I just didn’t see him apologize when he hit me. It happens to me sometimes too. But then you apologize and forget it,” he said before trying to put an end to the drama:
“The umpire tells me Holger said sorry, and so I apologized for not seeing him say it. And that was that. I don’t think there’s more to the story.”
Holger Rune lost the quarter final clash to Daniil Medvedev with scores of 5-7, 4-6.
