{"id":109542,"date":"2025-08-25T19:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109542\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:21:12","slug":"daniil-medvedev-sparks-chaos-at-us-open-clashes-with-umpire-stirs-crowd-before-shock-exit-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109542\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniil Medvedev sparks chaos at US Open, clashes with umpire, stirs crowd before shock exit | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DaniilDaniil Medvedev (AP Photo) NEW YORK: Daniil Medvedev was on the verge of a straight-sets exit from the US Open, facing match point against the 51st-ranked Benjamin Bonzi, when he chose to become the conductor of chaos at the Louis Armstrong Stadium. The mercurial former world No. 1 berated the chair umpire and incited the crowd, triggering a night of bedlam.Bonzi was preparing for his second serve at 6-3, 7-5, 5-4, when a photographer strolled into the arena. Chair umpire Greg Allensworth asked the cameraman to leave the court before announcing that, due to on-site interference, a first serve would be granted to the Frenchman.Medvedev wasn\u2019t happy and the crowd exploded, booing Allensworth\u2019s decision. The 29-year-old, champion here in 2021, gestured for more as he moved towards the chair. \u201cDon\u2019t shake,\u201d he instructed Allensworth before asking, \u201cAre you a man? Why are you shaking? So what\u2019s wrong? And it\u2019s a first serve? Ah, you want to go home?\u201dMedvedev then turned and started speaking into a courtside camera. \u201cHe wants to go home, guys. He gets paid by match not by the hour,\u201d he said and before delivering his punchline. \u2018What did Reilly Opelka say?\u2019 The Russian shouted into a night that had changed in mood and colour.
Opelka had been critical of Allensworth\u2019s umpiring in a tournament earlier this year.The match came to a six-minute standstill amid a chorus of jeers, whistles, and boos, as the crowd refused to settle even when Bonzi prepared to serve.The interruption put Medvedev back in the match. He fought off the match point and broke Bonzi in the tenth game. Bonzi, who appeared out of sorts in the fourth set, taking a medical timeout, rallied to clinch a tight fifth set for a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7, 0-6, 6-4 win.\u201cEvery time there is a sound from the stands between serves, there is never a second serve,\u201d Medvedev contested in his post-match conference. \u201cDelay from the photographer was probably for four-seconds-and-a-half. I’m not sure it’s enough for a second serve. But it helped me get back into the match. I was not upset with the photographer. I was upset with the decision.\u201d \u201cI think (if) the referee didn\u2019t say anything, he would have made the second serve and probably won the point, and the match is over. (But) he says first serve,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cWhat I say and what I do\u2026 In my head, I want to do worse, (but) I cannot because there are rules, because we’re on a tennis court.\u201d\u201cI just expressed my emotions, my unhappiness with the decision,\u201d Medvedev said, \u201cthen the crowd did what they did without me asking them too much. It was fun to witness.\u201d Medvedev, whose on-court antics bordered on bullying, blew heart emojis to a crowd that was wild for him.\u201cI love them. Love New York. They did the work. I didn’t do anything,\u201d he said. \u201cThey pushed me to come back into the match. I said, Reilly. Whatever I said, I don’t even remember, but it was fun for me.\u201dMedvedev, the first former champion to exit this year\u2019s tournament, leaves Flushing Meadows after a disappointing year at the majors where he managed to get to the second round just once in Australia in January.\u201cI’m playing bad and in important moments, even worse,\u201d he said. \u201cServe, return, volley, whatever. Just need to play better, and I’m going to try to do it next year.\u201d The 29-year-old Bonzi said he had never experienced anything like it on a tennis court.\u201cIt’s very difficult in tennis to play when you don’t hear the sound of the ball, of the strokes,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in a great position, it was a match point. Every time I went on the line to serve everyone was booing. I didn’t do anything.\u201d\u201cDaniil started it, he put oil on the fire,\u201d the Frenchman said. \u201cHe went crazy with the crowd, he went with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniil Medvedev (AP Photo) NEW YORK: Daniil Medvedev was on the verge of a straight-sets exit from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[71863,26603,99,428,71864,11883,70410],"class_list":{"0":"post-109542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-benjamin-bonzi","9":"tag-daniil-medvedev","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tennis-umpire","13":"tag-us-open","14":"tag-us-open-2025"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}