Why Daniil Medvedev was heavily booed by crowd in controversial US Open third round clash
Daniil Medvedev certainly didn’t endear himself to the US Open crowd in his win over Feliciano Lopez.
US Open: Daniil Medvedev tells crowd he won because of them
Medvedev needed four sets to beat Spaniard Lopez in their US Open third round clash.
But the match was marred by a handful of controversial moments which saw the Russian tennis star booed by the American crowd.
It all began in the first set when Medvedev lost his cool with one of the ball boys handing him a towel.
The world No 5 snatched the towel out of his hands before throwing it behind, leading the ball boy to go scampering to pick it up.
That was quickly picked up by the Louis Armstrong audience as they began to rain down boos on Medvedev.
The match umpire, Damien Dumusois, promptly handed Medvedev an unsportsmanlike conduct code violation for the incident.
That clearly didn’t sit well with the 23-year-old as he responded by appearing to toss his racket to the ground in the direction of the umpire.
Medvedev went on to launch into a verbal argument with the umpire.
Then arguably the thing that tipped it over the edge for the American crowd was when Medvedev was spotted walking back to his chair holding up his middle finger on the side of his face.
The gesture was picked up by fans when it was shown on the replay screen, but he wasn’t handed a second violation from the umpire.
“I cannot give you a code because of what I saw on the screen,” Dumusois told Medvedev.
“I have to see it myself.”
For the remainder of the match, the US Open crowd put their full support behind Lopez, booing Medvedev at every opportunity.
And when Medvedev was interviewed on court after his win, the boos continued as he credited the jeering for helping him get the result.
“I want all of you to know when you sleep tonight, I won because of you," he said.
“The more you do this, the more I will win for you guys."