No.7 seed Tomas Berdych revealed he refused to shake Nicolas Almagro's hand after their heated Australian Open fourth-round encounter on Sunday because he believed the Spaniard intentionally aimed a shot at him when he approached the net.
The incident occurred late in their taxing four-hour encounter on Hisense Arena and not even an apology from Almagro immediately after could satisfy Berdych who believed the Spaniard's tactics should not have been employed in the first place.
"You think is this enough to apologise?," Berdych posed after his 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-2) victory.
"You should think first, then you did something ... He should play the ball differently. That's it."
"When the court is not like two metres big and actually we have like nine metres, I think, there is pretty much enough of space when you have easy ball which, you know, that pretty much was."
"I was just able and lucky to somehow fell down. (The ball) just hit me in the arm ... Actually, this is not the way how tennis is."
"Even if you have this point, you always have enough space to where to put the ball and not actually try to hit the other guy."
Despite seething at Almagro's actions, Berdych was keen to move on.
"It's just one thing that what happened from the side of Nico (Almagro) was pretty much maybe not what should be happening in the tennis, and that's it, you know," Berdych said.
"So I think if they want to look at it like that, then I think maybe we both did some mistake. So it's even, and that's it."
During the week, Almagro suggested there was bad blood between Berdych and his quarter-final opponent Rafael Nadal but the Czech No.7 seed denied that.
"I mean, this is something what is maybe, what? Five, six years old? Is nothing to talk about it. We are friends, all of us," Berdych said.
Berdych knows he'll be in for a tough match against Nadal who has not dropped a set so far at Melbourne Park this week and has only lost three of their 13 career encounters.
"I saw some play of Rafa, and he's looking really strong. I mean, he didn't drop a set yet and he's playing really confidence, really well," Berdych said.
"And as he's shown, you know, he's a great tennis player. Deserve to be the position that he has, maybe even higher. So, you know, for me it's gonna be extremely tough."