Former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev has been fined significantly for his behaviour during an unusual first-round exit.
Medvedev, 29, was knocked out of the Grand Slam tournament after a tantrum sparked by a photographer walking onto the court while losing to France’s Benjamin Bonzi.
Read: Liverpool plan £350,000-per-week ‘deadline day’ bid IF Alexander Isak stays at Newcastle
The former world number one has been fined $42,500 by the United States Tennis Association.
He was fined $30,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and another $12,500 for smashing a racket against a chair.
This means that the Russian will have to lose about 40% of the prize money he received for the first round.
Read on F7: Nicolas Cage could star in True Detective season 5
After the incident on Sunday, Medvedev said he was prepared for a significant punishment.
“I’m getting a big enough fine, so if I talk, I’m going to get into big trouble, so I’m not going to talk,” he said.
When the Russian was facing match ball at 5-4 in the third set, a photographer penetrated the playing surface between Bonzi’s first and second serve.
Medvedev, who won the New York title in 2021, was furious when umpire Greg Allensworth awarded Bonzi another first serve after the bizarre incident.
Medvedev marched over to the judge and incited the frenetic New York crowd before shouting at Allensworth.
The game was delayed for over six minutes before the crowd calmed down enough for Bonzi to continue.
He was unable to serve out in a feverish atmosphere, and Medvedev fought back and took the match into a decisive fifth set.
After eventually losing a chaotic match, Medvedev brutally destroyed a racket before sitting down for several minutes until he finally left the court.
It didn’t go so well for Casper Ruud either, but he didn’t have any problems staying in his skin.
Casper Ruud seemed to have turned the match in his favor, but eventually had to give up to the 23-year-old Belgian Raphaël Collignon after five sets and is thus out of the US Open.
The result was 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. It is Collignon who will face the 20th-seeded Czech Jiří Lehečka in the next round.
“Casper is a great champion and I was anxious at first, but I found my rhythm and played a very good game,” Collignon said in the victory interview.
“This was my first five-set match, and then I won. Thank you to the audience for driving me forward. This is the best day of my life.
Collignon is ranked number 107 on the ATP list. Before beating Colombian Daniel Elahi Galán in the first round of the US Open, he had only won one match at ATP level. Still, he managed to match the level of the 12th-seeded Ruud.
Already at 1-1 in the first set, Collignon secured two break points on Ruud’s serve and converted them into a 2-1 lead. The players then held their serve until 4-3, when the Belgian committed three double faults in a row and gave Ruud the break to 4-4.
However, it did not help the Norwegian star, as Collignon immediately broke his serve back to 5-4, and secured the first set by holding his own serve.
Ruud wasted a set point on his opponent’s serve at 5-2, and three more when 40-0 became 40-40 on his own serve, but in the end he equalized with 6-3 in the second set.
In the third set, Collignon led 1-0 and then had three break points at 0-40 on Ruud’s serve. However, the Norwegian proved tenacious and saved the service match. Then he broke to a 2-1 lead.
After that, both players held their serve until the score was 5-3 for Ruud. The Norwegian secured three set points at 0-40 on the Belgian’s serve, and the set was decided with a double fault from Collignon.
In the fifth set, Collignon’s instability showed again when Ruud broke to 2-0, but the Belgian did not let himself be broken and immediately broke back.
After that, both he and Ruud held their serve until 5-5. Collignon then broke impressively for the sixth time in the match, and after three and a half hours he was able to serve his way to victory on the third match ball – after first committing his 15th, 16th and 17th double faults of the match.
Ruud beat Austrian veteran Sebastian Ofner in the first round, then in three straight sets.
Ruud came back strong in the second set. He broke to 2-0 and then to 4-0, but at 5-0 he met resistance again. Collignon reduced three times in a row – holding serve twice and breaking for the third time in the match.
In the fourth set, Collignon broke early to a 2-1 lead. He raised the level of his serve and never gave Ruud the opportunity to break back, thus taking the set 6-4.
