Daniil Medvedev punished as Russian refuses to play due to boos at Paris Masters
Daniil Medvedev received a time violation while facing Grigor Dimitrov at the Rolex Paris Masters as he refused to play while being booed. The Russian was jeered as he stepped up to serve at 5-5, having failed to close out the set. Medvedev shushed the fans, exciting more boos before he walked to his bench and sat down, claiming he wouldn’t play unless the fans were quiet while simultaneously riling them up.
Medvedev was broken while serving for the second set against Dimitrov, having lost the first. The 27-year-old then blew two set points on his opponent’s serve and took out his frustration on his racket, though he was still able to use it to play.
But the Parisian fans weren’t happy with Medvedev’s actions, booing him as he stepped up to serve at 5-5, having lost the last two games. The third seed then put his finger to his lips in an attempt to shush the crowd but that only made matters worse and Medvedev started complaining to the umpire.
As boos rang out across the Accor Arena, the 2020 champion walked to his bench and sat down, waving his arms in the air to rile up the spectators even more. With Medvedev refusing to continue, commentator Nick Lester said the Russian told the umpire: “Tell them to be quiet and I’ll play.”
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Chair official Renaud Lichtenstein continued to address the crowd in French and it appeared as though Medvedev was going to continue when he got off his bench. Instead, the world No 3 went back and forth between the court and the sidelines, delaying play even more as Dimitrov kept himself in the zone while waiting to continue.
Medvedev was eventually slapped with a time violation for delaying the game and retreated to the baseline to continue the contest. Despite the dramatics, the third seed was able to hold serve and he had four more set points with Dimitrov serving at 6-5 up.
The Bulgarian managed to force a tiebreak where Medvedev raced into the lead, finally taking the dramatic second set 7-6(4) at the seventh time of asking.
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It’s not the first time that Medvedev has opted not to play in protest of boos. The world No 3 slammed the Monte Carlo Masters crowd earlier this year when he was jeered just for asking the umpire to check a ball mark on the clay.
“I was just talking to the referee about the mark, some people started sniffling. I’m like, ‘okay I’m not going to play until you guys shut up’ because I just discussed the mark. There is nothing to sniffle about,” the Russian said at the time.
The same thing later happened at both the Madrid Masters and the French Open, where Medvedev also responded by shushing the crowd and refusing to continue.
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