MONTE-CARLO, Monaco – Daniil Medvedev broke down… again: the world No. 4, under pressure from his Russian compatriot Karen Khachanov (17th), once again lost his nerve on Thursday in the round of 16 in Monte-Carlo and lost 6-3, 7-5.
“Open your fucking eyes guys, look, do something!” », Launched Medvedev to referee Carlos Bernardes just after conceding the decisive break.
Medvedev had already succumbed to anger the day before against Gaël Monfils and lost his concentration during three games before returning to the game. Against Khachanov, the incident occurred at the very end of the game and cost him the match.
A ball from his opponent clearly bounced in the lane but the referees did not call a foul and Medvedev continued the rally which he lost before returning to show the incriminated mark.
Losing this point gave Khachanov two break points. Medvedev saved the first but followed up with a double fault to allow his opponent to lead 6-5 service to follow.
Then Medvedev, in a gesture of great violence, threw his racket backwards against the wall at the back of the court, without hurting or touching anyone. The referee gave him a simple warning.
But at the change of ends, the Russian did not stop there.
“WHO WILL TAKE ACTION!” 🤬
Daniil Medvedev rants at the umpire again! pic.twitter.com/Bbv9xT3AvJ
— Sky Sports Tennis (@SkySportsTennis)
April 11, 2024
“Carlos!” Carlos! What is he doing there? » says Medvedev to the referee when he sees the physiotherapist appear in front of him.
“Did I ask for the physio? », he asks while the referee explains to him that he called the doctor himself because the Russian had a little bleeding.
At this, the supervisor arrives to whom Medvedev explains the situation, in his own words.
“They better do their job, they don’t know how to do their job anymore. Yesterday, (against Monfils, editor’s note) the ball was faulty and announced as good. There, the ball is foul. Who will take responsibility? It’s not up to me to referee the matches,” says the former No. 1.
“It’s this guy with glasses (pointing to the linesman, editor’s note). He doesn’t need glasses because he can’t see anything anyway. He shouldn’t referee. It happens in front of him, the ball is slow, we are at 5-5, 15/30… He is a bad referee, he should not be part of the refereeing body,” he adds.
Then, returning to the chair umpire: “He calls the physio when I don’t need it, but he doesn’t see a foul ball! »
As the supervisor leaves, Medvedev launches one final rant: “Open your fucking eyes guys, look, do something!” Open your eyes! »
And while the players are called to resume the match, the referee announces a penalty point against Medvedev.
Starting his service game at 15-0, Khachanov did not miss the opportunity to finish.
“I’m happy because it’s the first time I’ve beaten him since 2018” in the semi-final in Moscow, said Khachanov, silver medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“Finally, I reach the quarter-finals” in Monte-Carlo, underlined the man who had never yet made it past the round of 16, reached in 2018 and 2023.
He will face Stefanos Tsitsipas (12th) on Friday.
Tsitsipas passes the test
The latter, double winner (2021 and 2022), passed a big test against the German Alexander Zverev (5th), whom he dismissed 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) in 2 hours 06 minutes.
“This result clearly demonstrates the level at which I am capable of playing in big matches,” said the 25-year-old Greek.
After two first rounds without the slightest hitch (he even benefited from the abandonment of his first opponent), the Greek fought and won a big fight to advance to the quarterfinals where he will meet Khachanov, whom he beat seven times in eight confrontations.
Thursday, Tsitsipas snatched the first set by achieving the decisive break to lead 6-5 and service to follow. In the process, he took off to lead 5-0 in the second set. But, after saving two match points on his opponent’s serve in the sixth game, Zverev returned to 5-5.
“I would say that this match is the adventure of a lifetime. I don’t find myself in this situation every day! », Commented the winner.
“I had the upper hand and suddenly he took it. The match was one sided for me and suddenly it became one sided for him. It’s not common and I still don’t know what happened,” he added.
“In any case, in the tiebreaker things went well, above all, from the moment I succeeded in the mini break, I felt very confident,” he stressed.
In the decisive game, Tsitsipas came away 6/3. And on the first match point, Zverev found himself in the middle of the court hesitating to volley the high ball that came to him, believing that it could possibly go out of bounds.
He finally decided to play a forehand volley, but the ball stopped in the net.
Last year, Tsitsipas stopped in the quarter-finals, beaten by the American Taylor Fritz.
And for a player who had not beaten a top-5 player in the world since the end-of-year Masters in 2022, this victory against Zverev gives “a lot” of confidence.
“It’s a big victory and I’m happy to have played at this level today. It required a lot of mental strength throughout the match and I was very solid from start to finish. I dominated from the baseline, I was able to dictate the pace and open up the court,” explained the former world No. 3.
Djokovic, not the crowd favorite
Novak Djokovic, for his part, qualified for the quarters by dismissing 7-5, 6-3 the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (24th in the world) who had eliminated him at the same stage of the tournament last year.
The world No. 1 will face Australian Alex De Minaur (11th) on Friday to try to reach the semi-finals. He will play his first quarter-final in Monte-Carlo since 2019, the tenth in total. He has not reached the final four on the Riviera since his second title in 2015.
This year, Musetti surprised the Serbian from the start by taking his first service game from him, which allowed him to lead 4-2.
Trailing 4-3, Djokovic scored a point and went to report to the referee that he should have seen that a ball from Musetti during the rally had bounced in the corridor not far from his chair.
The public, as always largely pro-Italian in Monte-Carlo, then started to whistle and the Djoker did not fail to provoke them.
A few points later, when he was down 40-0, the Serb broke again.
“He played a little less well and I received the support of the public,” Djokovic commented ironically, believing that at that moment “the match had changed”.
The man with 24 Grand Slam titles took the lead in the second set. And even though the Italian broke twice, Djokovic managed the decisive break to lead 5-3 and service to follow.
Last year, Musetti beat Djokovic at the same stage of the round of 16, achieving the best victory of his career at the same time.
Sinner advances without trembling
Jannik Sinner, 2nd in the world, was never threatened by the German Jan-Lennard Struff (25th) whom he eliminated 6-4, 6-2.
The 22-year-old Italian, who hopes to tame clay after his exploits on hard at the start of the season, will face Danis Holger Rune (7th) or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (9th) on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.
Sinner will benefit from the advantage of freshness against his next opponent since he only took 1 hour 16 minutes to dismiss Struff when Rune and Dimitrov were forced to finish their respective second round matches early in the afternoon. before facing each other in the eighth.
2024-04-11 15:29:37
#ATP #Karen #Khachanov #cracks #Daniil #Medvedev #MonteCarlo
