World No 3 Daniil Medvedev delivered a middle-finger gesture to the Parisian crowd on Wednesday, after a tempestuous defeat in which he was booed and heckled by local fans.
Medvedev did his best to disguise the gesture, making play of examining his nails as he left the court after his 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 defeat at the hands of in-form Grigor Dimitrov.
In the interview room afterwards, Medvedev adopted a tone of heavy sarcasm as he told reporters “No, I didn’t [give the crowd the finger]. I just checked my nails, like this. It’s nothing more than that. Why would I do that to this beautiful crowd in Paris-Bercy?”
But one camera view, posted on social media, shows quite clearly that he did wave the offending finger around. It was hard to say whether he was trying to be funny or looking for the plausible deniability that might save him from a fine.
Medvedev had earlier received a code violation for delay of game after sitting down in protest towards the end of the second set. He had just been booed for throwing a racket, and then telling the fans at the side of the court to “fermer la bouche” (shut your mouth). He also made reference to the “stupid” behaviour of the fans.
“I was, like, ‘Okay, till they boo, I’m not going to play,’” Medvedev explained later. “But Bercy crowd doesn’t stop to boo. Then when I got a code [violation], I was, like, ‘Do I really want to get disqualified and finish the match on this note?’ No. So I went to play.”
Medvedev was penalised for sitting down in protest during the second set
Credit: AFP/Julien de Rosa
He also explained that “I have a lot of French friends, and they don’t seem to like very much this tournament. Maybe there is a reason. I played much better here without the crowd.” He had won the Paris Masters in 2020, the pandemic year when the stands were empty.
Medvedev has form for riling tennis crowds, although his highest-profile instances have usually come in New York. It was there, in 2019, that he famously used his on-court interview to tell the fans “I want all of you to know when you sleep tonight I won today because of you.”
That night in 2019, when he beat Feliciano Lopez in five sets, he was booed for ripping a towel aggressively from a ball-boy’s hands and for throwing his racket in the direction of the chair umpire. He went on to deliver another disguised middle-finger salute to the fans, half hiding the gesture by the side of his head.
One of tennis’s most articulate performers, Medvedev is always courteous and thoughtful in the interview room. But his competitive instincts are prone to boil over on the court.
During his four-set win over Christian O’Connell at this year’s US Open, he pushed a cameraman out of the way and became involved in a heated conversation with a fan.
During the on-court interview following those incidents, he was asked if such outbursts help his tennis. “It depends,” Medvedev replied. “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. It’s kind of like a lottery.”