WATCH: Daniil Medvedev rolls ankle, calls court a disgrace, produces epic rant, beats Alexander Zverev

ATP Tour
Daniil Medvedev in action

Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev produced plenty of theatrics during their fourth-round encounter at the Indian Wells Open and – to be fair to Zverev – most of the drama came from the other side of the court.

Make no mistake the actual tennis that was being played was high quality with the match lasting more than three hours before Medvedev claimed a 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 victory to edge ahead in their head-to-head record as he now leads 7-6.

But the in between the start and finish Medvedev gave tennis fans plenty to laugh about.

For starters, he was once again unhappy with the slowness of the hard court and had a discussion with the chair umpire due to the condition, something he also did during his win earlier in the tournament.

When the official told him “even if it is a slow one, it is a hard court”, he replied: “I know what a hard court is – I’m a specialist.”

And he is right as he has won three consecutive titles on hard courts and his latest win means he is now on a 17-match winning streak.

The first set was a ping-pong affair as after they each picked up a break, Zverev edged the tie-breaker and Medvedev then vented again about the court.

“Should be banned from playing here. Freakin’ disgrace to the sport. This freakin’ court, man,” he said.

“They call it hard court. What a shame to call this awful court a hard court. I’ll go to the toilet, but I don’t care, give me a time violation. I’m going to be as slow as this court, again. I don’t care.
“Give me five time violations. I’ll go in one minute. If they allow us to play on such a court then I can allow myself to do whatever I want.”

Things then took a twist – and it was a nasty one for Medvedev as he rolled his ankle at 3-2 in the second set.

Zverev, who himself suffered a serious injury last year when he twisted his ankle at the French Open, was quick to Medvedev’s side of the court to see if his opponent was okay.

The Russian’s ankle was strapped and he was able to continue and he eventually took the second set via the tie-breaker to send the match to a decider.

But there was also another bizarre moment from Medvedev that left even Zverev confused.

The 2021 US Open champion then broke in game three of the third set and he came out to serve for the match at 5-4, but Zverev saved a match point as he broke back.

However, the German’s joy was short-lived as Medvedev broke back immediately and this time made no mistake when he was serving.

“I think when I rolled my ankle for 10 minutes I was not thinking about the match, but more about my ankle and how was it feeling, just trying to play more aggressive, not running too much,” he said.

“That helped me to get the momentum actually and some confidence to cool down from the heat of the match that we were playing in. That helped me a lot, even in the third set.

Medvedev will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the quarter-final after the Spaniard defeated Cristian Garín 6-3, 6-4 while the winner of the Medvedev-Fokina clash will face either Frances Tiafoe or Cameron Norrie in the semi-final.

READ MORE:Daniil Medvedev: ‘I’m scared to play Rafael Nadal on clay’

Alexander Zverev Daniil Medvedev

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