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Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev won the battle but not the war Sunday night at the U.S. Open.
Facing match point during his first-round U.S. Open match against Benjamin Bonzi of France, Medvedev encouraged the crowd to vocally express their displeasure after Bonzi was given a second first serve because a photographer mistakenly stepped on the court after the first one.
The disruption caused a delay of several minutes. Once play resumed, Medvedev not only won that point, he went on to win the set and then the set after that before being eliminated in the fifth set … and then smashing his racket in frustration.
“I didn’t do anything bad,” Medvedev later told reporters.
Here’s what happened on a wild night inside Louis Armstrong Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
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Who is Daniil Medvedev?
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The Moscow-born Medvedev, 29, is a former U.S. Open champion. His 2021 win at Flushing Meadows is his only major championship, although he has made the Australian Open final three times. He spent 16 weeks at No. 1 in the ATP’s world rankings in 2022.
He has also become known for bad behavior on court. During the third round of the 2019 U.S. Open, playing on the same court as he did Sunday night, Medvedev blew up at a ball person, threw a racket at the chair umpire and taunted the American fans.
In last year’s Wimbledon semifinals, Medvedev was issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct after saying “something in Russian, not pleasant, but not over the line” — as he described it to reporters — to a female umpire.
He has been known to make inappropriate gestures during matches. At the 2022 Australian Open semifinals, he infamously called an umpire “a small cat.”
Medvedev is having a rough year in major tournaments, making it to the second round of the Australian Open before three straight first-round exits. The last two came at the hands of Bonzi.
Last month at Wimbledon, ninth-seeded Medvedev was upset by unseeded Bonzi in four sets. For the U.S. Open, Medvedev entered at the No. 13 seed while Bonzi was again unseeded.
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What happened Sunday night?
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The rematch initially appeared as if it was going to be a quicker upset than the first time around. Bonzi won the first two sets and was up 5-4 and serving for match point in the third … when all hell broke loose.
Bonzi missed on his first serve and was preparing for his second when he was interrupted. A photographer who apparently thought the match was over had stepped onto the court and was immediately reprimanded over the loudspeaker by chair umpire Greg Allensworth.
Allensworth then announced that Bonzi would be given another chance at his first serve “because of the delay caused by an outside interference.”
The decision appears to be based on a USTA tournament regulation which states that if there is a delay between the first and second serves, “the server gets two serves if the delay was caused by the receiver or if there was outside interference.”
The announcement drew a negative response from the crowd, which Medvedev encouraged by using arm gestures. He then started berating Allensworth, seeming to ask him, “Are you a man?” more than once before leaning into the microphone behind the chair to address the crowd.
“He wants to go home, guys,” Medvedev said. “He doesn’t like to be here. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.”
He also yelled, “What did Reilly Opelka say?” at least three times, in reference to the U.S. player who was fined by the ATP Tour earlier this year after referring to Allensworth as the “worst ump on tour. ”
Medvedev later told reporters that he was upset with Allensworth’s ruling because he didn’t think the photographer had caused enough of a delay to warrant a repeat first serve.
As he returned to the court, Medvedev continued to motion for the crowd to voice its displeasure. Many of the fans complied, with TV footage showing a lot of them appearing to be more amused than enraged by the situation.
After about two minutes, Allensworth asked for order so Bonzi could serve. When that didn’t work, Medvedev started motioning for the spectators to quiet down. They didn’t, and Medvedev appeared to enjoy the lengthy disruption, at one point blowing kisses toward the stands.
“I just expressed my emotions, my unhappiness with the decision,” Medvedev said later. “And then the crowd did what they did without me, without me asking them too much. And it was fun to witness.”
Bonzi appeared to be on the verge of serving several times before stopping because of the noise.
“Every time I went on the line to serve and every time I did that, everyone was booing. I felt I didn’t do anything bad in the match to, like, receive this treatment, and I didn’t want to serve in those conditions,” Bonzi said. “So I was waiting.”
After a delay of roughly six minutes, Bonzi finally served — and missed again, much to the audible delight of the crowd. He got the second serve over the net but lost the point after a lengthy volley.
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The aftermath
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Bonzi appeared rattled by the incident and also needed a medical timeout during a disastrous fourth set. But he came through in the final set for a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 0-6, 6-4 victory. Afterward, Bonzi said he had “never experienced something like that.”
“The energy was crazy,” he said. “Thanks to all who were booing. Thanks for the energy.”
That photographer was escorted from the court by U.S. Open security and his credential was revoked, according to a USTA spokesperson.
Medvedev told reporters that he also expects to be disciplined, indicating as much when asked to elaborate on his in-match comments toward Allensworth.
“I’m getting big fine enough, so if I speak I’m in big trouble, so I’m not going to speak,” he said. “Everyone knows what I talked about when I said Reilly. Reilly got fined big-time for this, so I’m going to get a big fine, too.”
The Associated Press contributed to this artcle.
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