Daniil Medvedev has resumed his role as the villain of world tennis after a dramatic display in his Round of 16 win in Monte Carlo against 13th seed Alexander Zverev.
The Russian third seed came back after losing the first set to prevail 3-6 7-5 7-6 over the German, marking their first match against each other on clay with a win, despite Medvedev’s career 44 per cent win rate on the surface compared to Zverev’s 72 per cent.
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The principality crowd got on Medvedev’s wrong side, booing him throughout the match, with the former world No. 1 shushing the crowd after winning the second set.
With the third set at 4-5, at the change of ends, things got even more testy with Medvedev pulling out the singles post as he walked past the net.
This prompted the chair umpire to remonstrate with the Russian as to his reasoning for the bizarre outburst.
The three set win was Medvedev’s first on clay against a top 20 player since his win over then-world No. 7 Kei Nishikori in 2019 in Barcelona, and his first at Monte Carlo since defeating Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the 2019 Masters.
Zverev would let two match points slip in the final tie-break as Medvedev held on in a late-night thriller, reaching the quarterfinals in the principality for the second time.
Medvedev called the match “crazy” afterwards.
“That was a crazy match,” he said.
“He served two times for the match, he probably should have done better, but that is also clay courts.
“I tried to watch a lot of tennis before playing this tournament, and one thing that I saw is you can come back at any moment.
“The serve doesn’t count as much, so as soon as someone gets a little bit tight, the match can turn around in one second.
“That’s what I managed to do.”
It is not Medvedev’s first brush with controversy, clashing with the crowd at this year’s Australian Open and lashing out at a heckler.
Medvedev told a spectator at Rod Laver Arena during his first-round clash with American Marcos Giron to “f**k off”, to the audible shock of spectators at the venue.
He has previously made complaints to chair umpires in Australia of heckling by “empty-brain idiots”.
Medvedev is now 31-3 on the season, having won 26 of his last 27 on tour.
He will face Holger Rune in the quarterfinals, with the sixth-seeded Dane advancing after Italian Matteo Berrettini withdrew from their third-round clash with a side strain.
It will mark the first tour meeting between Rune and Medvedev, but Medvedev said the Dane was “an amazing player.”
“We practised many times,” he said.
“The first time at the Nitto ATP Finals when he was still a junior.
“Then a lot of times at the Mouratoglou Academy (run by top coach and commentator Patrick Mouratoglou).
“We practised a lot on clay.
“I don’t think I ever won a set, but I was playing good today, so I hope to show this good tennis tomorrow.”