Daniil Medvedev made a first-round exit at the French Open for the fourth year running, but not without his usual temper tantrums.
The Russian was given a warning for an audible obscenity, docked a point, smashed a racquet spectacularly on the red dirt and even served underarm as he stumbled to a 4-6, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 1-6 defeat to Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics on Monday.
MADvedev – this got a 2nd warning, and so Marci got the 2nd set TB. Marci leads 64, 76(5). pic.twitter.com/yj6T6v0Bn3
— Del🇪🇺 (@Stroppa_Del) September 28, 2020
The Russian, ranked fifth in the world, has never won a match at Roland Garros.
In a late-night match on chilly Court Suzanne Lenglen, Medvedev battled on gamely in the second set to take it to a tie-break.
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But after losing a close-fought point to go down 3-6 in the second set tie-breaker, the hot-headed Russian smashed his racquet.
As it was his second offence – he had been given an obscenity warning earlier—he was docked a point. Having lost the set, the 24-year-old stormed off to his bench.
Medvedev underarm serve (won the point)#RG20 (🎥@Eurosport_RU ) pic.twitter.com/zo3PPdhrO9
— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) September 28, 2020
During the eventful match, which lasted more than three hours, Medvedev was once heard saying: ‘What should I do? Tell me. I really want to know. How to win a match? After the match you tell me what I should have done but I want to know what I should do now to win the match. By the way, I’m talking calmly.’
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Not a natural clay-courter, Medvedev struggled with his emotions through the match and even resorted to an underarm serve at one point.
Body shot and complaining #RG20 pic.twitter.com/sFOZM0pHOT
— tennis gifs 🎾🎥 (@tennis_gifs) September 28, 2020
The Russian is known for his on-court tantrums and had a love-hate relationship with the US Open crowd in 2019, even sneakily showing them the middle-finger during his match against Feliciano Lopez.
At this year’s US Open, which was played without fans, Medvedev got into a heated debate with the officials calling the Grand Slam, ‘a joke.’
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He kept social media busy during Monday’s encounter with Fucsovics as well and earned the nickname ‘Mad-vedev’ for his antics.
, 6-2, 1-6 first-round defeat to Marton Fucsovics at the French Open){kind=link}