Fury and Triumph at Monte Carlo: Medvedev’s Controversial Exit, Tsitsipas’ Epic Victory

Daniil Medvedev had a fleeting passage through Monte Carlo Masters 1000. He beat in the debut Gael Monfilsafter being freed in the first round as the fourth seed, but could not get past the round of 16, in which they lost 6-3 and 7-5 to Karen Khachanov. A victory and a defeat in a tournament in which the Russian did his thing again. In the duel against his compatriot, a controversial ruling angered him, he swung a racket and ended up arguing with the umpire and the ATP supervisor. And, of course, booed by the public.

The former number one’s explosion began when Khachanov broke his serve in the final stretch of the second set, leaving him 6-3 and 6-5 ahead, with the chance to serve for the match. Medvedev, dazed, threw the racket as if it were a frisbee against the canvas at the back of the court and walked towards his chair.

Upon arrival, he noticed that the doctors were approaching him and began to shout to him. Carlos Bernardesthe umpire of the match. “Did I ask for physio!? Did I ask for physio!?”he exclaimed.

The Brazilian judge, one of the most respected on the circuit and who will retire at the end of this season, answered calmly: “I asked them to come because of the bleeding”he told him, pointing to the cut on Medvedev’s hand.

“Carlos, did I ask for the physio?!!!”, the Russian complained again. And he then got into a heated argument with Cedric Mourierthe ATP supervisor, who approached just as the doctors were leaving the court.

“Cedric, go look at the mark. The mark is outside. They no longer know how to referee. The mark is out! Who is going to take action?! Yesterday, the ball was bad and they called it good. Who is going to take action? This ball is also outside.”he exclaimed, clearly angry with some recent failure.

“Who is going to be responsible for the mistake?! It is not my responsibility to referee the matches. It’s this guy with glasses. You don’t need glasses, because you don’t see anything. I shouldn’t be a judge. It’s right in front of him. It is a slow ball, 15-30 and 5-5. He is a bad judge. He should be out of the loop. It’s brick dust, it’s not a hard court. “It’s out,” he continued, referring to a ball by Khachanov that, in his opinion, had been bad, but which was validated by the judges to give the winner of the match two break chances.

Mourier tried to calm him down, but his attempts were unsuccessful.

“Answer me. The camera is watching. Who is going to take responsibility. You are the supervisor. Who is going to take responsibility after the game? Because the ball was bad, you can check it. I just lost a game because of this. It was 15-30, it became 15-40. Carlos called the physio when I didn’t ask for it. When he didn’t need it. And he (pointing to the linesman) doesn’t see the ball outside.”Medvedev continued.

And when the supervisor had already left, he closed: “They are circumventing the rule. Open your damn eyes. Open the. Sit there and do something. Open your eyes now. It’s bad”.

Bernardes then announced that Medvedev had been penalized one point for his actions, so Khachanov started the next game 15-0 up and only needed to win three more points to seal the victory.

In the midst of his angry protest, Medvedev recalled a similar situation that he had experienced the previous day, in his match against Monfils, when Mohamed Lahyanithe umpire of that match, changed a line judge’s ruling and called a ball by the Frenchman that had been bad good.

“It was outside, it was outside”claimed the Russian at half-time. “I saw her inside. Maybe I was wrong. If I was wrong, I’m going to apologize.”answered the Swedish judge, while Daniil vented his anger with the top of his chair.

“How are you going to apologize?! I lost the damn game! This is a damn sport. I don’t know how… Oh my God! This is ridiculous, they don’t see anything.”he continued.

After sealing the victory, now calmer, the Russian continued the controversy and wrote on the camera lens of the official broadcast: “In or out?”

“In or out?” Medvedev asked following the controversy. Photo TV Capture

Before the start of the tournament, in an interview with the M-Sport media in his country, Medvedev had assured: “I am a completely different person on the court and off it. Since I do not have a competitive aspect in my personal life, I live calmer and concentrate on myself. On the court, this concentration goes much further. Maybe my problem is that I can’t concentrate only on myself there. And because of that I become a completely different person“.

His time in Monte Carlo showed that this reading is not wrong. And while when he is not playing he was seen relaxed and smiling; On the court that explosive Daniil appeared again, who cannot control his anger.

Tsitsipas’ long-suffering victory

Stefanos Tsitsipas He suffered a lot to get into the Monte Carlo quarterfinals. The Greek survived an unexpected comeback from the German Alexander Zverevwho overcame a 0-5 and match point deficit in the second set, and won 7-5 and 7-6 (7-3) in just over two hours of play.

Tsitsipas, 12th seed, had the game under control and seemed like he would close the match without problems. However, Zverev, fifth seed, did not give up. In the sixth game, He prevented the Greek from breaking his serve and closing the second set at zero.; He then won five consecutive games (including two breaks) and ended up forcing the tie break. And only in the tiebreaker, Stefanos was able to play again as he did at the beginning and took the victory.

“It was the adventure of my life”, Tsitsipas joked after the match. “It’s something I don’t deal with every day and the dynamic changed dramatically at a few points. It went in one direction and then completely in the opposite direction. I don’t know, I’m trying to find out what happened. It was 5-0 in the second set, however, things went pretty well in the tie break especially when I got the mini-break.”

His next rival will be Khachanov, Medvedev’s executioner.

In other round of 16 matches of the day, the Norwegian Casper Ruudeighth seed, beat the Pole 6-4, 6-2 Hubert Hurkacztenth, and French Ugo Humbert14th, beat the Italian 5-7, 6-3 and 6-1 Lorenzo Sonego, lucky loser. The two winners will meet in the quarterfinals.

2024-04-11 23:13:36
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