Daniil Medvedev had a nightmare third set against Rafael Nadal during the Australian Open men’s final, with the world No.2 losing his head when he appeared all but certain to wrap things up in straight sets.
Leading two sets to love and dominating play in the third, Medvedev conspired to let Nadal into the match when he got frustrated by the ball distribution between the ballkids and the crowd got under his skin.
Leading 4-3, he clashed with Australian chair umpire John Blom over the issue and derailed his title aspirations when he was within two games of lifting the trophy.
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“Are they not allowed to pass ball to one another? They don’t have to do the circle around the court – they can just pass one ball to another,” Medvedev asked.
“Then they can pass to each other. It doesn’t have to be in the middle.”
US tennis legend Jim Courier said the exchange was a sign that Medvedev was starting to lose his cool after failing to kill Nadal off.
“Probably [annoyed] because he just had a bunch of break points a couple of games ago and didn’t get it,” Courier said in commentary for Nine.
“It’s just a bit of a pressure relief for him, I think. That’s what we were looking at, both of the ball kids didn’t have balls. Unusual, a little bit.”
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With Nadal clearly the favourite among the fans at Rod Laver Arena, the noise levels reached a high when the Spanish superstar broke late during the third set.
It meant the fans were riding every point, which at times saw excessive noise being made in between Medvedev’s serves late in the third set.
His game started to capitulate, and after losing the third set, he urged the chair umpire to intervene when the crowd started making noise as he served. He labelled those fans “stupid”.
“Can you announce that whoever shouts before first and second serve – is an idiot,” Medvedev told the chair umpire.
“They’re not going to do it anymore.”
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