he crossed with the public and took a wave of whistles and boos

Daniil Medvedev gave a show again, although not exactly tennis, at the end of a rainy and cold day in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000. The Russian, third favorite of the tournament, beat the German Alexander Zverev, seeded 13th, and reached the quarterfinals. But as happens quite often when he steps on the court -especially one made of brick dust, a surface he hates, as he confessed more than once-, the former number once again showed his explosive character and his controversial side; and even he came across the audience again, who gave him more than one wave of whistles and boos.

Nothing mattered to him. He seemed to be strengthened by the reproach of the people and had a very tough game, in which Zverev did not know how to take advantage of his chances, since he served twice to seal the victory and had two match points. Medvedev did not let his own go by: when he saw the doubts of his rival, he struck and ended up celebrating. it was for 3-6, 7-5 and 7-6 (9-7), after three hours and five minutes of playto get into the top eight, where he will face the young Dane Holger Runewho advanced without playing due to the retirement of Matthew Berrettini.

“It was a crazy game,” acknowledged the Russian. “Alex served twice for matches, but he probably should have done better, although that’s what can happen on clay as well. I tried to watch a lot of tennis before playing this tournament, and one of the things I understood is that you can come back in any time. The serve isn’t that heavy, so as soon as someone squeezes a bit, the match can turn around in a second. That’s what I managed to do.”

The duel was charged with emotions and intensity.

Tennis-wise, because Zverev -much more comfortable on slow courts than his rival- started solid and won the first set without much trouble; but he could not close it in the second, in which his services were broken several times. The German, semifinalist last year in Roland Garros (when he tore several ligaments in his right ankle in his duel of that instance against Rafael Nadal), served to seal the victory with the score 5-4 in his favor. But Medvedev clung to the game, reversed history in that set and forced the third.

In the decisive chapter, Zverev once again had his chance to sign his pass to the quarterfinals, when he made a break, was 5-4 and served for the win. Again the Russian recovered the break and equalized the set. And in the tiebreaker, the German was up 6-5 and 7-6, but missed the two match points, before giving up.

Although the greatest tension was lived in extra sports, with the spectacle of questionable gestures and attitudes of the former number one. After giving up serve with a double fault at the end of the second quarter and trailing 4-5, on his way to his bench, he grabbed the pole that holds up the net at the height of the doubles line (near its end). and threw it to the ground.

Zverev, who had given way to him and was waiting to cross over to his chair, couldn’t help but smile, looked at his bench and the umpire, Carlos Bernardesand went on his way, used to the surreal reactions of the Russian.

The Brazilian chair umpire had to go down to put the rod back into place. “It didn’t break, it’s ok”he said before accommodating her, while Medvedev looked on with a wry smile, knowing that he had escaped receiving a “warning”.

The game continued, but the weather was no longer the same. And when some reproachful whistles came down from the stands, the Russian made a thumbs-down gesture and then put his index finger to his lips, asking for silence and pointing specifically to a person in the audience. That attitude did not go down well with the people, who began with booing and Medvedev ended up claiming to the umpire that he couldn’t play like that.

The situation was repeated when the 2021 US Open champion completed his comeback and took the second set. Between some applause, many whistles were heard and Daniil raised his arms, as if welcoming them, and again made the gesture of silence.

Despite having the public against him -or thanks to that, if you remember what happened in New York four years ago, when he said that the whistles motivated him and fueled his confidence-, the Russian managed to turn the game around and got into In rooms. And it scored his first win against a top-20 player on clay since he beat Kei Nishikori in Barcelona in April 2019.

He had already warned, although he doesn’t like this surface even when he wins, he still intends to do the best possible job in this part of the season. This Thursday, with a controversial show included, he demonstrated it once again.

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