Daniil Medvedev’s temper in the spotlight after another Monte Carlo meltdown
Former World No 1 Daniil Medvedev has been drawing attention for all the wrong reasons in Monte Carlo.
Medvedev has taken issue with the officiating yet again at the Monte Carlo Masters.
This time it came after Medvedev failed to stop a rally to contest a line call.
Despite the mark being clearly out and electronic replays and ball tracking showing that it was out, Medvedev lost out on the point which sent him into a rage.
The broadcast feed from Monte Carlo caught Medvedev’s vocal and aggressive remonstrations with the officials.
“They don’t know how to referee anymore,” he exclaimed on court, before implosing the match umpire to “Open your freaking eyes! Open your eyes!”
After suffering a break of serve soon after the argument, Medvedev flung his racket and started towards his chair only to be greeted by physios as the umpire believed he had called for a medical timeout.
Medvedev called for the supervisor to take up the issue of inconsistent line calls.
“Who will take action?” Medvedev asked supervisor Cedric Mourier, who had made their way down to try to clear up the fracas.
“Yesterday, the ball is out. It’s called in. Who will take action? This ball is out. Who will take responsibility? It’s not my responsibility to referee the matches.”
Medvedev was like a dog with a bone by this point after having a similar dispute with officials the day before.
“Who will take responsibility?” Medvedev continued to Mourier.
“Answer this: the camera is looking.”
READ MORE: Tennis great criticises Daniil Medvedev for ‘lack of self-control’ after Monte Carlo outburst
His opponent remained focused and Khachanov would say afterwards that he made an effort to block out what was going on.
“Mentally, even though I’ve lost a few hard matches to him on hard courts, I know he doesn’t like to play on clay and that gives me some extra confidence,” Khachanov said.
“Sometimes I know Daniil can lose his mind. Sometimes he uses it as a tool, but it can get out of control sometimes. I tried not to look at him or focus on him, and just serve it out.”
Khachanov takes confidence from his fourth career win over a top five player.
“First thing is to be consistent. I think lately my results have been better and better,” Khachanov said.
“Then to think how to beat the top guys and be at the top. These are the things that we have to keep in mind and keep working on. The win today gives extra confidence in my pocket to continue this tournament and to step into the clay swing.”
