Daniil Medvedev spoke about the Parisian crowd booing him after he exited the Rolex Paris Masters with a 6-3 6-7(4) 7-6(2) defeat to Grigor Dimitrov.
It was sweet revenge for the Bulgarian as he bounced back from his defeat in Vienna to Medvedev by beating the world number three in three sets.
Dimitrov needed seven match points but eventually earned his first win over Medvedev since 2021.
As for Medvedev it was disappointment as he will now head to his final tournament of the season at the Nitto ATP Finals which starts on the 12th of November.
However it wasn’t just the result that went against him as once again the fiery Parisian crowd made their feelings known during the match after Medvedev smashed a racket and then refused to play with the crowd continuing to boo him.
After the match Medvedev spoke about the controversy and explained the controversy, “So what happened is I throw the racquet, I get booed,” Medvedev said in his press conference.
“Normal. I don’t see a problem with that. I go to serve, they applause or something. But I want to serve. They shouldn’t applause. So I still serve. The referee was talking during this so Grigor was not ready. Okay, that happens, but I get booed. I didn’t see why, so I didn’t want to play. That’s actually the end of the story.
“Then I was, like, okay. Till they boo, I’m not going to play. But Bercy crowd doesn’t stop to boo. So I was, like, okay. Then when I got a code, I was, like, do I really want to get disqualified and finish the match on this note? No. So I went to play.
“As for the public, if we take the whole match that last three hours, there were just two minutes, five minutes. At 5-All during the second set, and during the third set I think I threw the racquet, and when I throw the racquet, I can be booed. I mean, it’s normal that I should be booed. But if I’m serving and they applaud and I’m being booed, that’s another kettle of fish.
“But everybody knows that we lack focus when that happens. Not everyone likes to play here in Paris for this reason. I played in Bercy much better when there was no crowd at all in attendance.”
Medvedev’s frustration with the crowd is the clear as Paris-Bercy has one of the more vocal crowds on the tour.
The world number three now looks to overcome the problems with the crowd as he looks ahead to the ATP Finals.
Meanwhile Grigor Dimitrov will now play Alexander Bublik in the third round on Wednesday as he looks to repeat his semi-final showing from 2019.
