Jack Draper believes a call made against him during his match against Daniil Medvedev at the BNP Paribas Open was unfair, but he holds nothing against his opponent.
Draper’s title defence in Indian Wells was ended by former world No.1 Medvedev, who produced a 6-1, 7-5 victory. However, their showdown was marred by an incident during the later stages of the second set when it was tied at 5-5. Draper was serving at 0-15 and was then penalised on the following point for making a hindrance midway through a rally when he briefly raised his arms after thinking a Medvedev shot was out before continuing play. Seven more shots were made before the rally ended with the Russian hitting the ball into the net.
Medvedev then challenged Draper’s reaction by asking the umpire, Aurelie Tourte, for a video replay of the point. Tourte then concluded that the Brit had committed a hindrance and lost the point. Even though the incident occurred halfway through a rally.
“You did something different in the rally than you would normally do,” the official said to Draper before making an announcement to the crowd.
Draper ended up getting broken in that same game before Medvedev served the match out. Speaking to BBC Sport afterwards, the 24-year-old said he has no hard feelings against Medvedev but is frustrated with the decision to penalise him.
“First of all, Daniil was the stronger player fair and square,” Draper told BBC Sport.
“It’s a difficult situation for the ref. I don’t think I did enough to hinder him, but at the end of the day I did make a slight thing with my hands.
“On one hand, I get it, but on the other, I don’t think it was enough to distract Daniil.
“If he had missed the next ball and it was very clear that I had hindered him, then I would get it.
“I think he’s played the rules quite well. The rally carried on and I was able to win the point so I don’t think I should have lost the point. I think it’s pretty harsh.”
Giving his side of the story, Medvedev admits he should have made the call for a hindrance straight away and not continued playing the rally before doing so. Players are penalised for hindrances regardless of whether they are intentional or not.
“I think I should have done it the moment it happened, I should not have waited until the end of the point, and then it would be a bit more available,” Medvedev told reporters.
“But if you look at the first forehand I did after this happened, I could have gone for more. I was kind of a tiny bit distracted. So I said to the umpire What should I do? Should I do it next time straightaway? And she goes If you want, you can do a video review. I said, Okay.
“She decided that it’s a point for me. So I take it.
“That’s basically it. Was I distracted big time? No. Was I distracted a bit? Yes. Is it enough to win the point? I don’t know.”
When quizzed if he acted ethically at that moment, Medvedev said he didn’t feel good about it but stated that he didn’t feel like he cheated.
“Was I distracted big time? No. Do I feel good about it? Not really. But I also don’t feel like I cheated or something.” He explained.
“So I got a bit distracted. I let it go, I let the referee decide. I had a lot of calls against me in my life, and I usually don’t handle them well. To get one on my side, I guess feels good as well.”
Following his defeat, Draper has dropped to 26th in the live rankings and has lost his British No.1 status to Cameron Norrie, who is currently two places higher than him. Norrie fell 6-3, 6-4, to Carlos Alcaraz in his quarter-final match.
Alcaraz will be the next opponent for Medvedev.
