\u201cTerribly sorry to the spectator, first of all,\u201d he told reporters afterwards, adding it was \u201c100 per cent an accident\u201d and that he wished to apologise to the fan in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball was bouncing back, so I tried to, like, just hit it anywhere, so it doesn\u2019t go out from the court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It had been a physical battle before Medvedev\u2019s disqualification.<\/p>\n
Djokovic was red-faced and hunched over between points, with both players forcing each other through gruelling rallies, until the Serbian took control in the second set.<\/p>\n
A valiant Djokovic, 39, put on a dazzling performance and saved 16 break points across the match, diving at the baseline and sprinting to the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see what happened, to be honest,\u201d he told the crowd after the fan was hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure that Daniil didn\u2019t … do it intentionally. It happened by accident. Sorry for the crowd,\u201d he said, adding that it had been a tough match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the feeling,\u201d Djokovic told reporters later, recounting his own disqualification from the 2020 US Open after accidentally hitting a ball at a line judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s horrible … but it happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although Djokovic was three points away from winning the match, he said victory wouldn\u2019t have come easy and that he got \u201clucky\u201d in a \u201cvery exhausting\u201d battle.<\/p>\n
\u2018Gave everything\u2019<\/p>\n
Earlier in the women\u2019s draw, former world No 1 Iga Swiatek staged a comeback to advance to the last 16, while home hope Zheng Qinwen survived another three-set test.<\/p>\n
Swiatek overcame frustration to cling on as her opponent served for the set, dominating a must-win tiebreak to beat Croatia\u2019s Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6 (7\/0), 6-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just angry, wanted to change something, because clearly it wasn\u2019t working,\u201d the 25-year-old from Poland said on court.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes if you care a bit less because you\u2019re … probably going to lose, it also helps you a bit,\u201d she later told reporters.<\/p>\n
She will face American teenager Iva Jovic for a spot in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Zheng was tested by Marie Bouzkova, enduring her third three-setter of the tournament to beat the Czech player 7-6 (7\/3), 4-6, 7-5.<\/p>\n
Zheng voiced frustration in each set at movement outside the court, including as she tried to salvage the second set on Bouzkova\u2019s serve.<\/p>\n
But she pulled out some of her most accurate tennis to clinch the last two games and win the match when 27th-ranked Bouzkova fired long.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave everything,\u201d Zheng said, having spent more than five hours on court in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruthfully speaking, I felt a lot of pressure today,\u201d the 23-year-old told her home crowd, thanking fans for their support.<\/p>\n
Zheng, the current world No 54, next plays 118th-ranked Alina Charaeva, who sent out top seed Elena Rybakina in the second round.<\/p>\n
Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova also advanced and will face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTerribly sorry to the spectator, first of all,\u201d he told reporters afterwards, adding it was \u201c100 per cent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24928,74,1975,30642,10748,607,305963,21171,141954,5904,4508,305964,111,139,141953,69,5493,195233,177466,8466,1551,260034,213,1361,1865,1316],"class_list":["post-621698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-advanced","tag-after","tag-at","tag-ball","tag-came","tag-china","tag-daniil","tag-disqualified","tag-djokovic","tag-final","tag-hits","tag-medvedev","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-novak","tag-nz","tag-open","tag-racket","tag-russians","tag-second","tag-set","tag-spectator","tag-sports","tag-that","tag-today","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}