Daniil Medvedev sparks chaos at US Open, clashes with umpire and crowd before shock exit

NEW YORK: Daniil Medvedev was on the verge of a straight-sets exit from the US Open, facing match point against the 51st-ranked Benjamin Bonzi, when he chose to become the conductor of chaos at the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The mercurial former world No. 1 berated the chair umpire and incited the crowd, triggering a night of bedlam.Bonzi was preparing for his second serve at 6-3, 7-5, 5-4, when a photographer strolled into the arena. Chair umpire Greg Allensworth asked the cameraman to leave the court before announcing that, due to on-site interference, a first serve would be granted to the Frenchman.

Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Medvedev wasn’t happy and the crowd exploded, booing Allensworth’s decision. The 29-year-old, champion here in 2021, gestured for more as he moved towards the chair. “Don’t shake,” he instructed Allensworth before asking, “Are you a man? Why are you shaking? So what’s wrong? And it’s a first serve? Ah, you want to go home?”Medvedev then turned and started speaking into a courtside camera.

“He wants to go home, guys. He gets paid by match not by the hour,” he said and before delivering his punchline. ‘What did Reilly Opelka say?’ The Russian shouted into a night that had changed in mood and colour.
Opelka had been critical of Allensworth’s umpiring in a tournament earlier this year.The match came to a six-minute standstill amid a chorus of jeers, whistles, and boos, as the crowd refused to settle even when Bonzi prepared to serve.

The interruption put Medvedev back in the match. He fought off the match point and broke Bonzi in the tenth game. Bonzi, who appeared out of sorts in the fourth set, taking a medical timeout, rallied to clinch a tight fifth set for a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7, 0-6, 6-4 win.“Every time there is a sound from the stands between serves, there is never a second serve,” Medvedev contested in his post-match conference. “Delay from the photographer was probably for four-seconds-and-a-half.

I'm not sure it's enough for a second serve. But it helped me get back into the match. I was not upset with the photographer. I was upset with the decision.” “I think (if) the referee didn’t say anything, he would have made the second serve and probably won the point, and the match is over. (But) he says first serve,” Medvedev said. “What I say and what I do… In my head, I want to do worse, (but) I cannot because there are rules, because we're on a tennis court.”“I just expressed my emotions, my unhappiness with the decision,” Medvedev said, “then the crowd did what they did without me asking them too much. It was fun to witness.” Medvedev, whose on-court antics bordered on bullying, blew heart emojis to a crowd that was wild for him.“I love them. Love New York. They did the work. I didn't do anything,” he said. “They pushed me to come back into the match. I said, Reilly. Whatever I said, I don't even remember, but it was fun for me.”Medvedev, the first former champion to exit this year’s tournament, leaves Flushing Meadows after a disappointing year at the majors where he managed to get to the second round just once in Australia in January.“I'm playing bad and in important moments, even worse,” he said. “Serve, return, volley, whatever. Just need to play better, and I'm going to try to do it next year.” The 29-year-old Bonzi said he had never experienced anything like it on a tennis court.“It's very difficult in tennis to play when you don't hear the sound of the ball, of the strokes,” he said. “I was in a great position, it was a match point. Every time I went on the line to serve everyone was booing. I didn't do anything.”“Daniil started it, he put oil on the fire,” the Frenchman said. “He went crazy with the crowd, he went with them.”