Daniil Medvedev (Moscow, 25 years old) is a tennis player as great as he is controversial and controversial because of his behavior on the court. Outside of it, he is friendly and talkative, and it is true that he has never avoided a question about some incidents that he has starred in throughout his career. and that we review here before the final against Rafa Nadal at the Australian Open, where he has had a couple of bad moments.
Expulsion in Savannah
In 2016, at the age of 20 and number 260 in the world, Medvedev had a run-in with a chair umpire during a match at the ATP Challenger in Savannah. In one episode of his duel with the African-American Donald Young, Daniil got angry with the referee Sandy French, also black, and made a comment that the tournament considered racist and for which he was expelled: “I know you’re friends, I’m sure of that.”
Brawl at Wimbledon
In the second round of the British Grand Slam, Medvedev suffered an ugly elimination against Bemelmans. In the last set, the Muscovite won the first two games and lost the next five, and then the match. Then he paid his frustration with another chair umpire, Mariana Alves, who had seen some shots to the lines of his rival as good. He came to ask that the collegiate be replaced by the supervisor. Then he shook her hand in a bad way and threw some coins towards her. “I was upset, and in the heat of the moment I did a stupid thing, I’m sorry,” he said then.
Fight with Tsitsipas
In the 2018 Miami tournament, Medvedev faced Tsitsipas and won in three sets. At the end of the meeting, both maintained a rather hot exchange of words. Apparently, the Greek began by insulting his rival at a time that was not recorded (“Russian garbage”, he told him) and when they greeted each other on the net, Daniil called him “little boy who does not know how to fight”.
Trouble at the US Open
At the 2019 US Open, in the first set against Feliciano López, he scolded a ball boy who brought him a towel, an act for which he received a warning from the chair umpire and after which he threw the racket and made a comb to the public. At the end, between loud jeers, he said: “The more you do it, the more I win.”
A 2021 full of messes
After a short season in 2020 due to the pandemic, Medvedev resumed the controversies. At Wimbledon, when he faced Carlos Alcaraz, annoyed by the public’s mood for the Spaniard, after winning a set he put his index finger to his ear demanding that they applaud him. At the Canadian Masters 1,000 he was penalized one point for yelling “excuse me” after executing a spike against Bublik because he had been strong. The referee considered that he was hindering his rival, who had returned the impact as best he could. Daniil asked for that rule to be changed. Shortly afterward, in Cincinnati, he bumped into a camera and angrily kicked it. “I almost broke my hand,” he said. Finally, during the Davis Cup, he faced the Madrid public, did a Ronaldo-style celebration and when Russia became champions he said that the best thing about the tournament had been eliminating Spain.
Kyrgios and Campistol
Finally, in this Australian Open, when he faced Kyrgios, he asked for respect for the interviewer, Jim Courier, when he was booed by saying that he had been whistled between serves. “Guys, I can’t hear him, please. Show some respect for Jim Courier (the interviewer). Let him talk, if you respect anyone, at least respect him.” And the mother of all his fights, he had it in the semifinal against Tsitsipas, when he called the Spanish judge Jaume Campistol “crazy”, “stupid” and “little cat”, in addition to saying that it was “very bad”. He was not expelled, although he was fined the next day.