The Russian star player Daniil Medvedev is having an unbeaten run at the US Open. He had a successful stint reaching the finals in Montreal and Washington and eventually winning the Cincinnati title. His performance was rock solid so much so that he was touted to break the Big3’s supremacy at the Slam.
Why was Medvedev booed by the crowd when he played against Feliciano Lopez?
However, things changed for the Russian when he faced Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the third round. Not only did the Russian take a dig at the crowd but committed actions that made the crowd turn against him.
In the match’s opening set, Feliciano broke Daniil to take a 5-3 lead, and that is what made the Russian lose his cool. As a reaction to that, when a ball person came towards him for handing out a towel, Medvedev angrily snapped at him. The Russian threw the towel behind after snatching it from the ball person.
Chair Umpire Damien Dumusois upon seeing his behavior tagged a conduct code violation against Daniil for his unsportsmanlike demeanor. This led the Russian to throw his racket towards Damien, and he began reiterating words of Stefanos Tsitsipas from the past week:
“You’re all weirdos; you’re all weirdos. You should not be in the chair,” said Medvedev.
Medvedev’s actions began a chorus of boos that by each passing hour rang aloud in the Louis Armstrong stadium. However, the choir started the actual booing when the big screen displayed replays of Medvedev, showing his middle fingers subtly. From this point on, the crowd rooted for Lopez and kept on booing the Russian.
Daniil fed the energy off and eventually won but was fined nine thousand dollars for his obscene gestures.
After defeating German Qualifier Dominik Koepfer 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) and booking a berth in the final eight, Medvedev had a lot to say about the unmerciful booing of fans.
He said: “Yeah, you know, I mean, talking about the last match, I was an idiot, to be honest. I did some things that I’m not proud of and that I’m working on to be a better person on the court because I do think I’m a good person out of the court.”
Medvedev further added saying: “Talking about today, I think, I mean, I was just, during my match I was entirely focused. After the game, I engaged a little bit with the crowd. But we all know how the New York crowd can be. It’s probably the most electric crowd in the world, I think.”
The Russian admitted he is still training to be his best but has learned a few lessons after going through spiteful comments about himself post Friday’s match.
And also, confessed that he enjoyed the give-and-take with the crowd on Sunday in New York saying that: Especially, I mean, playing this week on big courts, I could feel it. Today I was engaging with the crowd and hopefully — hopefully it was fun for them and me. As I said, it gave me a lot of energy to win.”
Medvedev's postmatch interview was a trolling masterpiece #USOpen pic.twitter.com/4D2pDdtPU2
— Paid man gets bored (@cjzero) August 31, 2019
