Russian Tennis Star Daniil Medvedev Called Out After Outburst at Wimbledon
The fifth best male tennis player in the world lost his temper after a bad play Friday, seemingly saying “fuck you” at a Wimbledon umpire three times after ruling he hadn’t hit the ball back fast enough.
Russian spitfire Daniil Medvedev received a warning for his unsportsmanlike verbal volley toward umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore after she called “not up,” meaning that the ball had bounced twice before Medvedev got to it.
He ultimately lost the match to 21-year-old Spanish boy wonder Carlos Alcaraz, who now faces Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final—a repeat of last year’s thrilling match-up, which Alcaraz won by 3 sets to 2.
Medvedev narrowly escaped being “defaulted” or disqualified from the tournament’s semifinals for his expletives, claiming he had said something in Russian that was “not pleasant, but not over the line,” according to The Athletic.
Medvedev famously called an umpire a “small cat” in the 2022 Australian Open, but Medvedev’s outburst wasn’t the first time a Russian lost their cool during a bad game in this year’s tournament. Another player, Andrey Rublev, slammed his racket into his knee seven times in a fit of rage, leaving it bloody and bruised before crashing out of the first round of the tournament to a Wimbledon rookie.
