But the undoubted flashpoint occurred during the second set, when two birds sat upon the net during a lengthy baseline exchange between the two players. <\/p>\n
On match footage, the two birds are visible as two small specs sitting on top of the net, and that was where they remained, as Medvedev and Gornzy fired venomous ground-strokes at one another.<\/p>\n
That was until a cross-court Medvedev forehand came a little too close for comfort, sending one of the birds flying away – at which point the chair umpire seemed to notice, and was the catalyst for a decision which massively angered the Russian. <\/p>\n
He was visibly stunned when the umpire ordered the point to be replayed, and – in typical Medvedev fashion – told the umpire exactly how he felt.<\/p>\n
“This is the most ridiculous decision I’ve seen in my life,” Medvedev fumed. “This is very bad.”<\/p>\n
![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-03208026-c722-4447-a672-1cc4559afaee-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Highlights: Sabalenka continues title defence with crushing win over Iatcenko<\/p>\n
Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n
The 2021 US Open champion, though, did not allow his frustrations to negatively impact his performance. He held serve all the way through the second-round match, and found decisive breaks in the second and third sets to secure a straightforward passage to the third round at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the victory, Medvedev addressed the bird incident which left his proverbial wings temporarily ruffled. <\/p>\n
“I saw [the birds] straight away,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “I thought the point would stop straight away but it didn’t.<\/p>\n
“Then we play for 45 seconds and the moment I hit the winner we say stop. I’m like: ‘Why? We played for 45 seconds!’.<\/p>\n
“But it’s okay. I was not happy with the decision, but it is what it is. You can’t do anything with it.<\/p>\n
“The situation was pretty crazy, but I love this court, I’m happy to win, to stay in the US Open, to stay in New York for longer.”<\/p>\n
Medvedev, who will face Arthur Rinderknech in the third round, is regularly involved in explosive on-court confrontations, and last week, amused fans when he suggested he should take up pickleball or curling<\/a> instead of tennis during a changeover in his defeat to Martin Damm Jr. at the Winston-Salem Open.More severe on-court meltdowns have seen Medvedev incur fines, including at last year’s US Open when he was docked \u00a331,450<\/a> after his furious reaction to opponent Benjamin Bonzi being allowed to retake his first serve following an interruption from a courtside photographer. Earlier last year, Medvedev was fined \u00a362,456<\/a> following his first-round win at the Australian Open for destroying on-court cameras with his racquet, protesting decisions from the umpire and failing to show up for his press conference.<\/p>\n His run to the third round at Flushing Meadows is a marked improvement on last year’s first-round exit, and a sign of his general upturn in form at major tournaments, after a difficult 2025 saw him win just one match across the four tournaments.<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a> to enjoy more content like this.Download the TNT Sports app on iPhone<\/a> and Android<\/a>.Watch and stream top tennis action, including the Australian Open and French Open, live with TNT Sports on HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights: Defending champion Alcaraz comes from a set behind to down Faria Video credit: SNTV Medvedev ran out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1021,28,6519],"class_list":["post-64215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-daniil-medvedev","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-tennis","tag-us-open-mens-singles-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}