{"id":174163,"date":"2025-08-25T11:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174163\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T11:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:11:08","slug":"medvedevs-match-point-meltdown-sparks-chaotic-scenes-at-us-open-daniil-medvedev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174163\/","title":{"rendered":"Medvedev\u2019s match-point meltdown sparks chaotic scenes at US Open | Daniil Medvedev"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Open descended into chaos on Sunday when a photographer came on to the court as Daniil Medvedev<\/a> faced match point, bringing the first-round match to a standstill and sparking a spectacular meltdown from the Russian.<\/p>\n

Medvedev, the 2021 champion, was eventually knocked out 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 0-6, 6-4 by France\u2019s Benjamin Bonzi, who threatened to walk off the court at one point and called for the Russian to be disqualified.<\/p>\n

Serving for the match at 6-3, 7-5, 5-4, Bonzi was preparing to play his second serve when the photographer stepped on to the court surface. The disruption led the chair umpire, Greg Allensworth, to put Bonzi back on to his first serve, sparking an astonishing outburst from Medvedev.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you a man? Are you a man? Why are you shaking?\u201d the Russian shouted as he stormed towards the chair. \u201cHe wants to go home, guys, he doesn\u2019t like it here. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The match was halted for about six minutes as jeers, whistles and boos rang out around Louis Armstrong Stadium, with fans refusing to stay quiet so Bonzi could serve.<\/p>\n

The US Tennis<\/a> Association said the photographer was escorted from the court by security and that his credentials had been revoked.<\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev shows his disdain for chair umpire, Greg Allensworth in New York. Photograph: Adam Hunger\/AP<\/p>\n

The chaos almost proved Medvedev\u2019s salvation. After fending off the match point he broke to level the set at 5-5 before edging the tie-break to force a fourth set. Medvedev looked a completely different player in the fourth set as he dished out a bagel to level the match as his rattled opponent took a medical timeout for what appeared to be a knee issue. Boos from the crowd continued for the remainder of the match, with some fans targeting Bonzi during his service motion.<\/p>\n

The final set was much more of a contest, as the match wound down to a nail-biting finish. Spurred on my shouts of \u201cCourage!\u201d and \u201cAllez!\u201d from his box, Bonzi sealed the win with a glorious backhand, with Medvedev returning to his seat and smashing his racket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy. I may have got some new fans, but also some new non-fans,\u201d said Bonzi, the world No 51. \u201cThe energy was crazy. Thanks to all who were booing. Thanks for the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medvedev becomes the first former champion to exit this year\u2019s tournament, leaving Flushing Meadows after a horrible year at the majors where he managed to get to the second round just once.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t upset with the photographer,\u201d Medvedev told a press conference. \u201cI was upset with the decision. Every time there\u2019s a sound from the stands between serves, there\u2019s never a second serve. But the umpire gave him a first serve. That\u2019s what made me angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Benjamin Bonzi cups an ear to the Flushing Meadows crowd after his victory. Photograph: Eduardo Mu\u00f1oz\/Reuters<\/p>\n

As boos erupted from the night-session crowd, Medvedev embraced the chaos, rallying fans into a frenzy in a scene he later described as \u201cfun to witness\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019m losing the match,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cI didn\u2019t break him once. So I said, OK, it\u2019s second serve, but they gave him a first. I got emotional. Honestly, while living it, I was like, you know what, it could be fun maybe to finish my career with one match at the US Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love New York. They did the work. I didn\u2019t do anything. The crowd pushed me to come back into the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonzi said he felt Medvedev\u2019s behaviour had crossed the line. \u201cDaniil started it, and he put oil on the fire. He went with the crowd crazy. He went with them. Honestly, I never saw that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe rule is the rule. The guy went on the court between two serves. It\u2019s not my call to say first serve. I felt I didn\u2019t do anything bad in the match to receive this treatment, and I didn\u2019t want to serve in those conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Open descended into chaos on Sunday when a photographer came on to the court as Daniil…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":174164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-174163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}