Daniil Medvedev explains ‘stealing’ from Jannik Sinner after losing final

Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner have both responded after fans thought the world No 3 stole from the Italian after losing their recent final meeting at the China Open. A video of Medvedev taking a stuffed toy out of the world No 4’s trophy has gone viral but he revealed that it was actually his own toy that he was getting back. Sinner also defended his rival, explaining why he might have appeared annoyed with Medvedev.

Sinner got his first career victory over Medvedev in seven career meetings on Wednesday, coming through 7-6(2) 7-6(2) to lift the trophy at the China Open. It was his ninth career title and allowed him to reach a new career-high of world No 4 but one of the biggest talking points from the final was nothing to do with Sinner’s achievement.

Fans spotted a funny moment between the 22-year-old and Medvedev following the trophy presentation. After taking photos together, the world No 3 reached into Sinner’s trophy and took a plushie out, walking off with his rival looking confused.

Medvedev stole that doll,” @Fedals_Tear wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). @KittyBox1 added: “Sinner looks mad about it.” But both men have now cleared things up, as Medvedev confessed he still found some of the clips “funny”.

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“It was mine. It was mine. The thing is that they gave us both a toy, and he put his straight away in his trophy, in the cup,” he explained. Medvedev decided to follow suit, continuing: “And me, I didn’t want to be with a toy on the pictures because I knew that it’s a great picture, so I put mine in his cup and took it back, and I was actually even a little bit surprised it made such a buzz.

“But some of the videos and photos are really funny, the way I took it and just left, but it was my toy.” Sinner was later asked about Medvedev’s comments and confirmed his rival’s story. “Yeah, it is his,” he stated.

The nine-time title winner also explained that he might have looked annoyed because he was trying to speak to Medvedev about his plans to travel on to Shanghai for the Masters 1000 event. Sinner explained: “So he had the same toy as I had, but we took the picture, and he put it in because of the picture, and then when he went away, he took it.

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“No, no, because I asked him, Tomorrow you go by train or you fly? And I say, Hey, where you going?” After the hilarious trophy ceremony moment, both men have made it to Shanghai where they received a bye into the second round as seeded players.

Medvedev will now face world No 98 Cristian Garin in his opening match while Sinner will look to keep his momentum going when he faces America’s Marcos Giron who is currently ranked at No 80.

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