Many people forgot before the start of the US Open 2023 that Russian Daniil Medvedev is one of the main contenders for winning the tournament. While everyone was arguing whether Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz or Serbian Novak Djokovic would take the competition, Medvedev loudly reminded himself in the first round, defeating Hungarian Attila Balazs — 6:1, 6:1, 6:0.
In the second round, the Russian’s opponent was the Australian, 69th in the ATP rankings, Christopher O’Connell. The game took place at Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second most important court in the New York tennis center. The meeting began after 21:00 local time, however there were many spectators.
The first two sets were left to Medvedev, the third was so tense that the Russian made several mistakes, having two match points, he gave up the set. This angered Medvedev so much that he began to rudely respond to the tipsy spectators, who shouted something at him throughout the game, and then completely hit the camera that was filming him during the break.
During the pause, Daniel called the doctor to him and asked him to give him the same medicine that had previously been given to O’Connell.
- What are your symptoms? — asked the doctor.
“I lost the set,” the Russian answered calmly.
The match had already gone on past midnight local time and the spectators had already managed to fill themselves with beer by this time and were less and less holding back their emotions towards Medvedev. It was difficult to complete the game in such an environment.
“Can you shut up? Are you dumb? Dumb or not? — Medvedev shouted to the fan and twirled his hand at his temple.
As a result, in the fourth set, Medvedev was able to put the squeeze on the Australian — 6:2 in favor of the Russian. After the meeting ended, Medvedev sent in Russian the American who had been pestering him throughout the match. Here’s how the tennis player himself commented on this game:
“Tough match. I don’t know why, but at some point he decided to play better. I spent the entire match at the same level, but he decided to improve a lot. I do not know why. And it became harder for me. I’m glad I stuck it out. I had chances in the third set and I was able to take advantage of them in the fourth.”.
Earlier we told you that Daniil Medvedev won the Masters series clay tournament for the first time in his career. In the final, which took place in Rome, the Russian beat the Dane Holger Rune. The prize fund of the tournament was 7.7 million euros.