Daniil Medvedev was defaulted from his China Open semifinal against Novak Djokovic with the Russian trailing 7-5, 5-3 on Monday night.
With Djokovic serving for the match late in the second set, the 39-year-old Serb struck a winner for 15-15. After the ball caromed off the back wall, Medvedev swung and hit it right into the face of a man who was sitting in the front row. Clearly injured to some extent, the man was ushered out of the stadium after just a couple of minutes and Medvedev was immediately defaulted.
A conversation between chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani and the tournament supervisor was brief, and there was little to no protest by Medvedev.
“I feel terribly sorry for him actually, and I just hope he’s okay,” Medvedev commented. “That’s the most important. The rest, we move on. I just really care about him right now. Hopefully I can meet him and make up for it somehow. It was 100 per cent an accident,” Medvedev shared. “You can see that I didn’t hit the ball in anger…. The ball was bouncing back, so I tried to just hit it anywhere, so it wouldn’t go out of the court.”
“(It was) a bit of a shock, to be honest,” Djokovic added. “Sorry for the person (who got hit). I honestly didn’t see what happened. I hope that person is not badly injured. On the other hand, I also feel sorry for Daniil, because I know exactly how he feels to be disqualified in a big match. I was disqualified at the 2020 U.S. Open in similar circumstances. I am sure that Daniil didn’t want to do this intentionally. It just happens.”
Even before the abrupt conclusion, it was a wild match. The first set alone lasted almost one hour and 20 minutes, and they had already been playing for two hours and 29 minutes when Medvedev was defaulted. Djokovic saved an incredible 16 of 18 points.
There was also a brief moment during the second set Medvedev seemingly mocked Djokovic’s apparent physical gesticulations, as the 24-time Grand Slam champion was often doubled over in agony in between points despite looking 100 percent throughout what were a whole host of incredibly grueling baseline rallies between the former world No. 1s.
Djokovic, who is now 33-0 lifetime in Beijing, will battle Alex de Minaur for the title on Tuesday. Both semifinal matches ended prematurely, as De Minaur got a second-set retirement from Hubert Hurkacz while leading 6-4, 3-2.
wow
Same thing happened to Novak at the USO, Nalbandian at Queens, if you make that rule, then it has to be the same for every player, no exceptions, right call, Medvedev defaulted, end of
It has to be that rule because it exposes the ATP and the player to a lawsuit.
The ATPs actions is designed to mitigate their liability.