Daniil Medvedev under fire for ‘insulting’ Novak Djokovic: ‘You want to keep your mouth shut’
Former world No 4 Greg Rusedski has criticised Daniil Medvedev for “mocking” and “insulting” Novak Djokovic with his behaviour during the pair’s China Open match.
Medvedev was disqualified from his semi-final showdown with Djokovic at the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing on Tuesday.
With Djokovic serving for the match and leading 7-5, 5-3 (15-15), Medvedev struck a ball into the crowd and hit a spectator, who was sitting in the front row, in the eye.
The 2021 US Open champion was then defaulted after a short discussion with the chair umpire and tournament supervisor, bringing an unfortunate end to what had been a pulsating and physical encounter.
Djokovic was visibly struggling with his breathing at various points during the match, as he had in his previous victories at the event.
Despite his physical issues, Djokovic’s level of play was outstanding, and Medvedev expressed his frustration as he appeared to mock the great Serbian during the match by pretending to be in pain.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Off Court With Greg Rusedski podcast, Rusedski discussed Medvedev’s disqualification in China.
“He played a great match, but you gotta be very careful where you throw your racket and where you hit the tennis ball,” said the former British No 1. “It can be unintentional, but it’s an automatic. The chair umpire did the right thing.
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“You want to keep a safe environment for the fan. And sometimes we have to control our anger. These things happen, and he’s quite an emotional player where he can lose it.”
Rusedski added: “He was mocking Djokovic during that match, as well, pretending that he was having breathing problems.
“So, he is a unique character, Daniil Medvedev, but he’s good for the game.”
The 1997 US Open finalist went on to claim that Medvedev’s imitation of Djokovic was a mistake and declared “you can’t do that to our champions.”
“The worst thing you can do is mock Novak because when you do that, he actually plays better. So you want to keep your mouth shut,” Rusedski asserted.
“You want to play tennis and you don’t want to insult the great champion because he just looks for something a little bit more to motivate him. And that’s what Daniil gave him. So I think he made a tactical mistake.
“And I think you can’t do that to our champions. It’s great for the entertainment value because [it is a] talking point for us, and the fans are probably going, ‘what’s going on here?’ And it gives us something to talk about, which is great.
“But in the respect, if you want to beat Novak, you’ve got to make sure you don’t give them extra ammunition.”
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