Daniil Medvedev rejected raising his middle finger to the crowd after being booed
throughout his defeat to Grigor Dimitrov at the Rolex Paris Masters.
He was beaten 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-2) in the round of 32 and even stopped playing in the 2nd set up until the boos stopped within the Accor Arena, which triggered an argument with umpire Renaud Lichtenstein after he was provided a main time infraction.
The drama began in the 2nd set when, with ball games level at 5 each, the 27-year-old gotten jeers from the Parisian crowd after tossing his racket while stepping up to serve.
Medvedev gestured to the crowd to be peaceful and strolled back to his bench in demonstration and informed the umpire he would not play up until they stopped. In turn, Medvedev got the time infraction for postponing the video game.
In the end, Bulgarian Dimitrov fought to a three-set win after he let 6 match points slip before lastly dispatching his challenger on the seventh to advance through to the last 16.
Medvedev got more boos as he strolled off the court and appeared to provide the middle finger to the crowd, something he later on rejected.
After the match, he informed an interview: “I simply examined my nails, like this, no truly it’s absolutely nothing more than that. Why would I do that to this lovely crowd in Paris Bercy?
” I tossed the racket, I get booed, typical. I do not see an issue with that. I go to serve and they praise or something however I wish to serve so they should not praise, so I still serve and the referee was talking throughout this, so Grigor wasn’t all set.
” This occurs, however I get booed, I didn’t see why so I didn’t wish to play which’s in fact completion of the story.
” I resembled all right, up until they boo I’m not going to play however the Bercy crowd does not stop to boo and after that when I got the code I resembled ‘do I truly wish to get disqualified and complete the match on this note?’ So I simply went on to play.”
Dimitrov will handle Alexander Bublik next, where he reached the semi-finals in 2019.
Novak Djokovic beat Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry in his opening match
World No 1 Novak Djokovic revealed no indications of rust from his United States Open victory to win his opening match at the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Djokovic tightened his grip on the year-end No 1 as he relieved previous Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3 6-2 to reach the 3rd round in the French capital.
The 36-year-old might extended his benefit to 1,495 points by winning a record-extending seventh title in Paris-Bercy after his closest competing Carlos Alcaraz lost in his opening match on Tuesday.
Djokovic, chasing after a record-extending 40th Masters 1000 title, will next play Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor
Stefanos Tsitsipas passed a stiff test from the resurgent Felix Auger-Aliassime, where the Greek’s serving assisted him seal a 6-3 7-6 (7-4) victory.