Daniil Medvedev has made a winning return to the matchcourt after beating Reilly Opelka in his first round match at the Washington Open.
Medvedev lost in the first round of Wimbledon this year, extending his losing streak in Grand Slams to three matches.
However, he is now on his preferred North American hard courts, with Medvedev being a former US Open champion.
Although Medvedev won his opening match at the Washington Open this year, he was not happy with everything about his match.
Photo by Rene Nijhuis/MB Media/Getty ImagesDaniil Medvedev tells the Washington Open to move the on-court cameras
Medvedev is a former world number one, but after a mixed season so far in 2025 is currently down at world number 14.
The 29-year-old appeared to be facing his third consecutive defeat at the Washington Open against the big serving Reilly Opelka, but managed to come back from a set down to progress into the next round.
However, in his post-match press conference Medvedev revealed that he preferred returning on the side of the court where the TV camera was not placed and called for it to be moved, as he claimed it made him lose points.
“Yeah, the camera should not be there,” said Medvedev. “I was trying to kind of play with it, meaning if I thought he was going to go to the backhand, I knew that I have to stay two steps forward. But whenever he made a good kick, I was (indiscernible).
“I don’t see why it’s there. Again, maybe against another opponents, it will not bother me because I’m going to be tiny bit closer, because Reilly is probably the biggest server. But when you’re playing against Reilly, you’re a little bit disappointed, because there can be important points which you lose because of the camera. It’s not fair, anyway. It’s just not fair.
“In terms of getting used to, yeah, during the match, I was trying to find solutions to his serve, and I managed to do it step by step and I was returning better and better, so I’m happy about it.”
This is not the first time that Medvedev has been irritated by on-court cameras, having collided with one at the Cincinnati Open in 2021.
Daniil Medvedev’s return statistics vs Reilly Opelka
This is the second time in recent memory that Medvedev has played Opelka, reversing the result from his defeat at the grass court tournament in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
Despite his frustrations with the camera at the Washington Open, Medvedev’s return statistics were significantly better in the US capital.
The Russian won a higher percentage of both first and second serve return points, and broke Opelka three more times at the Washington Open.
Medvedev vs OpelkaIn HertogenboschIn Washington D.C.First Serve Return Points won %16%23%Second Serve Return Points won %41%56%Break points converted0/33/13
However, some of this could be related to the surface, with grass courts typically more beneficial to a big server than hard courts.
Medvedev will be hoping that the cameras are not getting in his way for his next match at the Washington Open, where he will play resurgent Chinese player Yibing Wu.
This is the second time that Medvedev has played Wu, winning their only previous meeting at the US Open in 2022.