Daniil Medvedev has opened about his clash with the crowd at the Paris Masters after losing an enthralling encounter with Grigor Dimitrov.
The 2021 US Open champion incurred a narrow 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(2) loss against the Bulgarian in a just under 3 hour battle. At the R2 match on Wednesday, the World No. 3 received a code violation for contributing a delay of game as he let his negative emotions out by displaying racket abuse after failing to convert two sets points at 5-4 in second frame.
A rouge Paris crowd was quick to boo and whistle the Russian and didn’t hold themselves back when Medvedev was ready to serve. Out of anger, Medvedev returned to his chair twice and hushed the spectators, saying: “Shut your mouths.” While he has was unhappy with himself, hostile crowds who like to have their own antics in those moments, drove him against themselves. A frustrated Medvedev was seen sarcastically counter-provoking the hostile crowd to keep jeering.
The lanky Russian did manage to hold his composure to win the set to head to the decider. In the turbulent third set, he save six match Mps and recovered from a 2-5 deficit to force a tiebreak but eventually fell to a resurgent Dimitrov.
At the end of a rollercoaster affair, 27-year-old was bade farewell to the Parisian tennis fans by erecting his middle finger while leaving the stadium. During his post-match press duty, Medvedev jokingly denied the display of offensive signal.
“No I didn’t [show the crowd the middle finger]. I just checked my nails, like this (demonstrating). No, really, it’s nothing more than that. Why would I do that to this beautiful crowd in Paris-Bercy? (smiling),” said Medvedev.
The former world No 1 also talked about his refusal to play in the second set in the midst of whistles and boos directed towards him.
“So what happened is I threw the racket, they booed. Normal, I don’t see a problem with that. I go to serve, they applause or something. But I wanna serve, they shouldn’t applause. So I still serve, the referee was talking during this, so Grigor was not ready. Okay that happens, but I get booed,” he explained.
“I didn’t see why. So I didn’t wanna play. That’s actually the end of the story. I was, like, ‘Okay, ’til they [don’t] boo, I’m not going to play’. But Bercy crowd doesn’t stop to boo. So I was, like, ‘Okay.’ Then when I got a code, I was like, do I really want to get disqualified and finish the match on this note? No. So I went to play.”
Medvedev a champion at Paris-Bercy in 2020 in the absence of crowd because of Covid-19 restrictions went one step further to suggest that he would prefer playing the event without the crowd.
“We have 60 players. 30 of them will love it (the tournament), 10 players will think that it’s not relevant, so on and so forth. So I’m not going to say anything. I don’t want to say bad things about this tournament in general. It’s just that it doesn’t work. Every match is the same. Things like that happen,” added Medvedev.
“It depends on the tournament, how I react, how the public reacts. It’s a question of chemistry, of mayonnaise! Plus, I have a lot of French friends. They don’t like this tournament very much, and I think there’s a reason for that.
“As for me, I play much better here when the public isn’t here. Maybe that explains it. Even if I play my career here for 10 years, I’m going to come back and try to do better, especially in terms of tennis, and that’s how you get the public on your side.”