The Russian tennis player crossed all boundaries in a dispute with the referee.
Daniil Medvedev got into scandals more than once because of his impulsive nature. And if lately the tennis player has more or less learned to restrain his emotions, then at the beginning of his career, the Russian regularly lashed out at the judges and even the fans, allowing himself completely unworthy statements.
One such incident happened four years ago at Wimbledon. The athlete struggled to refrain from scolding, but in the end he still crossed the line.
For a provocative gesture had to pay a lot of money.
Drama in five sets
Medvedev went to Wimbledon 2019 in the status of a rising star in world tennis. Following the results of the previous season, the 22-year-old Russian entered the top 20 of the ATP rankings for the first time and continued to rise higher and higher. At the beginning of the new campaign, Daniil won his fourth title, winning the tournament in Bulgaria, and a couple of months before the trip to England, he reached the final in Barcelona.
The experience of performing on the British lawn by that time, however, was not the best for the athlete. In 2017, Medvedev flew out after the first round, in 2018 – after the second. On the grass surface, Daniel still didn’t feel too confident, but he didn’t plan to give up without a fight.
In the first round, Medvedev calmly figured out in three sets with Pablo Lorenzi, after which he defeated the Australian Alexei Popyrin. Daniil got a really difficult opponent only in the third round: he had to fight with Belgian David Goffin, seeded under the 21st number.
The confrontation began well for Daniil: the Russian took the first and third sets, but in the end the difference in experience affected. In the fifth installment, Medvedev led with a score of 4:1, but allowed Goffin to first equalize and then turn the game around (6:4, 2:6, 6:3, 3:6, 5:7). At this decisive moment, the athlete staged a wild trick, unable to contain the accumulated emotions.
“Apple”
With a score of 40:30 in the seventh game, the linesman recorded an out when Medvedev served. Chief arbiter Pierre Bacca immediately canceled this decision, but Goffin hurried to file a protest and was right: the HawkEye system confirmed the Russian’s miss. A small incident confused Daniil, after which he made a second out-of-bounds in a row, allowing the Belgian to get even closer.
It was then that Medvedev lost his temper. Anger for his own mistake, the athlete decided out of habit to vent on the judges. First, Daniil sarcastically gave a thumbs up to the lineman, and then turned to the chief arbiter: the Russian rubbed two fingers together, hinting at the corruption of the tournament.
The athlete did not stop there. Sitting down on the bench, Medvedev started yelling at the referee, while trying to look away so as not to run into a fine. In addition, the Russian replaced the second, abusive part in the English word bullshit, mixing it with the name of the system for determining outs (hawkeye). It turned out to be a decent and harmless (if you don’t know the context) word bullseye, meaning the center of the target or “bullseye”.
It’s an apple, an apple! I don’t swear, do I? You are nobody! I would say more, but of course I will be fined. Can I swear to your face? No, I’ll get a fine. What are you doing here? Not once in the history of tennis have you canceled anything. What are you even doing? the distraught tennis player shouted in English.
Leaving the court after the defeat, Daniel also defiantly hit the lawn with a racket, and then refused to shake hands with the judge. To avoid punishment, of course, failed. For unsportsmanlike behavior, Medvedev received a fine of 5.5 thousand dollars – a very substantial amount, but the athlete was still lucky with it. On the basis of the totality of violations, he could have been punished much more severely.
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
39-year-old French tennis player and husband of Elina Svitolina Gael Monfils (ATP 110) Withdrew from the 2026 Australian Open.
The Frenchman lost to the Australian in four sets in the first round of the major tournament in Melbourne Dane Sweeney (ATP 182) in 3 hours 54 minutes.
Australian Open 2026. 1/64 finals
Dane Sweeney (Australia) [Q] – Gael Monfils (France) – 6:7 (3:7), 7:5, 6:4, 7:5
Monfils played on the Australian Open courts for the 20th time. For Gael, this was his last match at the Australian slam; He will retire in 2026.
Gael’s best results at the Aus Open are quarter-finals in 2016 and 2022. Sweeney will face eighth seed Ben Shelton in the second round.
“First of all, thank you very much. My journey started with you in 2005 – that’s when I first came here. Now the year is 2026 and somehow this is already the finish line. Thank you very much for this amazing journey. You were incredible. Thank you very much. I have very good memories here… Great battles. I am lucky to have played here for many years.”
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
(Melbourne) The ex-no 1 world Naomi Osaka (current 17e in the WTA rankings) qualified Tuesday in three sets for the second round of the Australian Open.
Crowned in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021, the Japanese won 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against the Croatian Antonia Ruzic (65e).
The four-time Grand Slam winner will play in the next round against Romanian Sorana Cirstea (41e), who started the last Australian Open of her career at age 35 by eliminating the German Eva Lys (39e).
Entering the court with a white parasol, a wide-brimmed hat and a long white train, Osaka started the match with her feet on the ground to quickly lead 3-0.
Ruzic recovered to 3-3 before again losing three games in a row and the first set.
The Croatian responded in the second round, winning by the same score.
In the decisive set, Osaka broke from the start to break away at 2-0, but Ruzic came back to her level again before taking her throw in to lead 4-3, service to follow.
This time it was the Japanese who held on to get back to 4-4, before inflicting a shutout then a new break on Ruzic to seal her qualification with a final winning backhand, after almost 2 hours 30 minutes of fighting.
Osaka played her first Grand Slam match on Tuesday since her semi-final at the United States Open in September, her best run in a major tournament since she returned to the circuit in early 2024 after the birth of her first child.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
(Melbourne) World No.2 Jannik Sinner, double title holder, benefited on Tuesday from the retirement of Frenchman Hugo Gaston (93e), injured his abdominals, to qualify for the second round of the Australian Open.
The 24-year-old Italian was leading 6-2, 6-1 when Gaston threw in the towel.
“It’s the abs that have given up a little. I felt the pain in the middle of the first round. I called the doctor immediately at the end of the first round to get an anti-inflammatory,” explained the Frenchman who suddenly felt “like a little stab”.
He fell during the first round after returning a drop shot from Sinner, but he assured that the injury and the fall were not linked.
On the other hand, the pain in his abdominals bothered him a lot “on serve and on high balls”.
“I saw that he was not serving at a very high speed, especially in the second set,” commented Jannik Sinner in his post-match interview on Central.
“I am very happy to qualify, to return to this place that I particularly cherish […]but that’s not the way I wanted to win this match,” added the world No.2.
Sinner’s next opponent will be Croatian Dino Prizmic (127e) or the Australian James Duckworth (88e).
For his first official match of the season, the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner took a little time to settle down, notably having to save three break points in the first game.
But once he managed to take Gaston’s serve in the particularly tight sixth game, Sinner unfolded, winning the next seven games. A few moments after snatching his only game in a one-sided second round, the Frenchman informed his opponent that he was giving up, after a little over an hour of match.
“Giving up pisses me off a bit,” Gaston commented. But hey, on the other hand I can’t afford to play at 50%, even 100%, to beat Sinner…”
Undefeated since his retirement at the beginning of October in the third round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, the world No.2 scored a sixteenth victory in a row on Tuesday and joined Carlos Alcaraz (1) in the second round of the Australian Open.er), Alexander Zverev (3e) and Novak Djokovic (4e).
“I felt very well prepared, we worked a lot physically and on the court” during the offseason, said Sinner, who skipped the Davis Cup finals in Bologna in November to have an additional week of preparation for the 2026 season.
For his part, Lorenzo Musetti, seeded fifth, progressed due to the retirement of Raphaël Collignon of Belgium in the fourth round.
The score was 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 and 3-2. The nature of the injury has not been released.
Shelton hits hard
The 23-year-old American Ben Shelton inherited probably the worst draw, in the person of the first ATP player not to have been seeded, the Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
But last year’s semi-finalist, who made his name by reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2023 despite never having left the United States, was uncompromising and won 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).
PHOTO MARTIN KEEP, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ben Shelton
“It’s always difficult to face Humbert in the first round, but I remained very calm, very focused on my game and I played better and better,” he stressed with satisfaction.
He will play in the second round against the Australian Dane Sweeny (182e).
Monfils eliminated in the first round of his last tournament in Australia
Gaël Monfils, who will end his career at the end of the season, was eliminated Tuesday in the first round of his last Australian Open by the inexperienced Australian Dane Sweeny (182e world) 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5.
The 39-year-old Frenchman plays his 23e and final season. Ex-world No.6 currently 110ehe was playing his 20e Australian major since his first participation in 2005. He has reached the quarter-finals twice, in 2016 and 2022.
PHOTO PAUL CROCK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Gaël Monfils
“My journey began here in 2003 (in qualifying, Editor’s note). We are in 2026 and it is the finish line, but thank you all for accompanying me, you were great,” he told the audience from the court while generally only the winner of the matches, before the final, speaks on the field.
“I fought four hours again today, but this guy (Sweeny) is very strong. I wish him good luck,” he added to his winner.
For the latter, the victory is particularly beautiful, because in addition to having beaten one of the great names in tennis of the last twenty years, he offered himself his first victory in a Grand Slam tournament.
“It’s like I’m in a series… it’s incredible,” he commented. Before the match started, his goal was “win or lose, enjoy the chance to be there.”
As usual, the most popular French player since Yannick Noah spared no effort. And despite the encouragement of the public – in particular from a group of French people – the youth of his opponent (24 years old) visibly prevailed, as Monfils appeared so tired.
Broken one last time to be down 6-5 in the fourth set and the Australian’s service to follow, Monfils failed to reverse the situation.
“You’re here, you played your 20are Australian Open and you have entered a very closed circle: you are six players from the Open era (since the 1969 edition) to have reached this bar,” tournament director Craig Tiley told him, who came to greet him on the court.
“We want to thank you for your career, your attitude and the way you taught us how to play this wonderful game. Well done,” added Tiley.
Monfils’ last match in Melbourne, greeted by a hearty ovation from the public with “thank you Gaël” sung in the stands, lasted 3 hours 51 minutes.
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
