Daniil Medvedev relishes baiting booing US Open crowd: 'I want all of you to know I won because of you'
Daniil Medvedev, the Russian world No 5, baited a booing US Open crowd on Friday night following a tetchy four-set win over Feliciano Lopez.
Medvedev, a naturally combustible character, had earned the ire of the supporters on Louis Armstrong Stadium for his antics that included angrily snatching a towel from a ball-person's hands - for which he recieved a code violation - and then making an offensive gesture towards the crowd. Medvedev was lucky to escape punishment for the gesture, which was replayed on the big screens in the stadium. Umpire Damien Dumusois said he could not administer another code violation, which would have resulted in a point penalty, because he had not seen it himself when it initially took place.
Relishing his role as a pantomime villain, Medvedev said in his on-court interview after the win: "I want all of you to know, when you sleep tonight, I won because of you."
As the boos got louder, he continued: "The energy you gave. The more you do this, the more I win."
Medvedev went on to say that it was only the crowd's hostility that got him through the exhaustion of having to play a tough four-setter just a day after his similarly demanding second-round win against Hugo Dellien.
This sort of controversy is nothing new for Medvedev, who at Wimbledon in 2017 threw coins at the umpire’s chair to imply that she had been bought. Then at Miami last year, he and Stefanos Tsitsipas had to be separated by the umpire at the end of a heated first-round match.
Acknowledging his habit of finding trouble, Medvedev said on Saturday morning: "I am working on myself and hopefully I will be better next time."
He next faces German qualifier Dominik Koepfer on Sunday, ahead of a possible quarter-final against world No 1 Novak Djokovic.
