Tennis
The judge brazenly robbed Medvedev in the US Open semi-finals. Monstrous injustice!
Daniil Medvedev / Photo: © Al Bello / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
After impeccable matches in the previous stages, the Russian hit a wall, which was prevented from being broken through by the referee’s chaos.
The US Open is one of Medvedev’s favorite tournaments. However, the tournament in New York does not always reciprocate his feelings.
In the semifinals of the 2020 US Open, Danya ran into a cruel referee and was ingloriously eliminated from the last major of the season.
Top favorite
After the canonical final of the US Open 2019, in which Medvedev and Nadal played an almost five-hour match, the Russian finally became one of the top players on the tour. Therefore, the next year he came to New York as one of the contenders for victory.
His main competitors – Djokovic and Thiem – calmly reached the fourth round, in which the Serbian had a world-famous story. Novak, during a match against Spaniard Carreno Busta, accidentally hit the line judge with the ball and was instantly disqualified.
The scandal with the first racket of the world, naturally, became the main topic of discussion. No one expected such a tough decision towards an authoritative player. However, Novak’s outcome made things easier for Medvedev on his way to triumph.
The main opponent was the Austrian Tim, who followed Danya through the bracket to the semi-finals. Dominic showed very confident tennis and lost only one set in five meetings – to the Croatian Marin Cilic.
Kilometer out
Medvedev spent the first set under constant pressure from the Austrian. Dominic was superior to our player in attacking actions, although this could not be called unexpected. Traditionally strong in defense, Daniil could not systematically maintain a high level and made many mistakes, or allowed his opponent to take the rally with his own blows.
But despite these problems, Medvedev clung to the first game. And, most likely, he would have retained a chance for a showdown at the end of the set, if not for the absurd actions of the judge and supervisor. In the sixth game, with the score 3:2, a fight ensued on Dani’s serve. Thiem earned a break point.
At the most important moment of the game, Medvedev hit the out of bounds with his first serve, but the referee did not notice it. The Austrian hit the ball into Dani’s half, and the Russian, by inertia, substituted his racket and immediately raised his hand, asking for a challenge. However, the arbitrator denied him this desire.
In most situations, such an episode could be played out, but not in this case. Firstly, it was about Tim’s break. Secondly, even live, the out was obvious to any viewer – several centimeters in length.
Medvedev rushed into the opponent’s half to mechanically show the referee where the ball landed. But instead of listening to the player, Damien Dumusois issued a warning to the Russian. Here, of course, Danya went completely crazy:
– It’s a joke? Is the US Open some kind of joke? Why don’t you give a challenge? What did I do to receive the warning? Oh sorry. Looks like I killed someone, right? My apologies. My sincere apologies for going to his half. “Oh my God,” Medvedev lamented in a dialogue with an emotionless supervisor.
But Djokovic’s experience clearly showed that arguing with the organizers is pointless. Danya did not continue to swear, but still lost the thread of the game and gave away the first game – 2:6.
Lacked character
In the second set, our player made a break. It seemed that the nightmare of the first game could be forgotten and we could begin to solve the main problem. But Tim was ready to fight to the last and pull out even dead balls.
When Danya came out to serve for the game, the Austrian literally chewed out the break, forcing his opponent to hit the net. Instead of equality in the score, Medvedev received a tiebreaker, where he lost in a spirited fight (7:9).
In the third game, our tennis player again earned a break, again came out to serve for the game with the score 5:3, had a set point, but instead of winning, he implemented the scenario of the second segment of the match. The Austrian, with character, pulled out a seemingly lost game and closed this semi-final with the second match point in the tiebreak – 6:2, 7:6, 7:6.
Medvedev was not like himself, dramatically giving Dominic two sets and “seeding” after Dani’s usual altercation with the judge. A semi-final from which useful conclusions can be drawn to be used in the upcoming battle with Alcaraz.
Source: Sportbox
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.