Just a few months ago, Daniil Medvedev played in the finals of the Indian Wells against Carlos Alcaraz. While he had a good start to the 2024 season, Medvedev now seems to be in a spot of bother. He lost a match against Zhang Zhizhen at the Halle Open on Wednesday.
As things took a turn so quickly for the Russian, Medvedev was furious with himself and took it all out on his racket. It made him come in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Daniil Medvedev lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7) in a match he was expected to win. And it just wasn’t the slamming of his racket which has made his behavior come under the scanner.
Medvedev advanced to the net after that and offered a rather weak-looking handshake to Zhang. While his disappointment at the time was understandable, the World No.4 came across as someone who lacks common courtesy and sportsmanship towards his opponents. At least a smile and a firm handshake while congratulating Zhang could’ve gone a long way in avoiding a bigger controversy.
Instead, Daniil Medvedev has been the subject of trolls in the last 24 hours. And he isn’t the only Russian player facing the heat from netizens.
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Daniil Medvedev is the second Russian in a span of 2 days to face lot of social media backlash after Andrey Rublev! pic.twitter.com/o7tLF5zpHr
— Wide World of Tennis (@tennisfan_dkr) June 20, 2024
Medvedev’s compatriot and his daughter’s godfather Andrey Rublev too has had a poor start to the grass season. Rublev lost in the Round of 32 of the Halle Open to Marcos Giron, 4-6, 6-7 (5-7). Rublev too slammed his racket in anger after the last point of the match and was screaming at himself after the loss. This comes just weeks after Rublev won the Madrid Open in style.
Therefore, it clearly shows two things. Firstly, the Russian men’s players need to improve on their skills on grass as their chances look bleak ahead of the Wimbledon 2024. Both Medvedev and Rublev have been typecast as hard court specialists.
Secondly and more importantly, it raises a huge question mark on their temperament as the country’s tennis players are already under pressure due to political issues and not getting to play under their national flag.
It makes many fans believe that the duo need to take a break, refresh and ponder over where they have gone wrong. Additionally, the manner in which Daniil Medvedev lost the match, is a big cause of concern for his team.
The match between Daniil Medvedev and Zhang Zhizhen was unlike any other. Medvedev didn’t look like he had the upper hand at any point during the game. During all 3 sets, Zhang was always in the lead, and Medvedev kept making unforced errors from the beginning. As the game progressed, Zhang showed that he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve, and Medvedev kept struggling.
Daniil Medvedev has a lot of work to do in little time. The one possible advantage he would have as compared to his rivals at the top is the fact that he would look to completely focus on winning the Wimbledon 2024 tournament, rather than bother about looking at the Olympic Games in Paris, which would be played on clay. So Medvedev cannot be ruled out and instead, is arguably the dark horse at SW19 this year.
