Daniil Medvedev had moved to defend himself following his rant at the impure at the Shanghai Masters. The Russian came through his second-round match 5-7 6-4 6-4 against Matteo Arnaldi, but the win was overshadowed by the fiery exchange that came midway through the second set.
Medvedev, 28, received a code violation and redacted furiously, appearing to insult the official.
He was then given a point penalty, but despite clearly being irate did manage to regain his composure to take the set and later the match.
It wasn’t the first time this week that Medvedev has been involved in an umpire altercation, having also had an outburst during his first-round win against Thiago Seyboth Wild. And after getting past Arnaldi, the world No.5 argued he’d been wrongly deemed to have used bad language before his sanction.
“What I did is, I got angry when they first called violation,” he said, “So I made an impression that I’m saying something under my hand or under my mouth, how do you say it, but I didn’t say anything, I was murmuring something like, ‘Oh, you’re bad, you’re bad, you’re bad’.
“Then I got the second code, which | guess could be, you know, maybe deserved, and then I went crazy. But I knew that at this moment, if I manage the moment of the match, I lost the first set, if I manage to use it in my advantage, I could do it and I managed to do it.
Medvedev’s temper has become a feature of his career, and the former US Open champion was also pressed on whether his behaviour during games was having an adverse effect. “I just need to not cross the line and be friends after the match because that’s how sport work also,” he added.
“I’ve tried many different things in my career, trying to stay calm, but sometimes I go very crazy. And I think what works is whatever you feel like will work at this moment. It should not cross the line, that’s for sure, because you can get defaulted, and that’s not nice. Today I didn’t.”
The officiating isn’t the only gripe Medvedev has had in Shanghai. As he left the court after beating Arnaldi, he wrote ‘nice balls’ on a television camera, an apparent dig at the quality of the tennis balls being provided for the tournament.
He later clarified his actions, and argued the nature of the balls left him at a disadvantage while favouring the top two seeds, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. “I think it it basically favours people who can benefit power from dead balls,” he said.
“Some have better quality with this. Some don’t. Actually the two best players at doing this, they’re already the best players in the world, and I’m sure they would be without the balls. But with these balls, they’re the only players who can generate crazy power.”
