Daniil Medvedev’s 5-minute meltdown: Clashes with umpire, riles up crowd, gets booed, then rallies back from match point

Daniil Medvedev, a former US Open champion, was staring at his third straight first-round Grand Slam exit, and first in New York since his 2017 debut. The Russian looked rattled, and a double fault in the ninth game of the third set handed underdog Benjamin Bonzi match point — but what followed left the Frenchman in complete dismay.

Serving on match point, Bonzi’s first serve hit the net, but he was granted another chance after chair umpire Greg Allensworth spotted that a cameraman had aimlessly walked onto the court. The decision left Medvedev fuming as he charged at the match official, as he felt the missed first serve had nothing to do with the cameraman. He vehemently argued with the umpire, saying: “Are you a man? Are you a man? why are you shaking? What’s wrong, huh? Guys, he wants to leave. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.” He even yelled into the broadcast camera, leaving the umpire livid, before riling up the crowd, who suddenly erupted with boos.

The play was halted for almost five minutes as the crowd continued to jeer as Bonzi refused to serve until things settled down. Medvedev reacted with a heart gesture and flying kisses, which also did not sit well with the crowd.

When the play finally resumed, Bonzi faulted on his first serve, and the crowd let out a sarcastic cheer for Medvedev. This was followed by an unforced error from Bonzi as the crowd reaction continued. Moments later, Medvedev hit the winner to level the third set at 5-5 and threw up a heart with his hands to acknowledge the crowd support. The former world No. 1 then won his service game, a nervy tiebreaker, and the fourth set to push for a deciding fifth.

The incident even left Taylor Fritz perplexed. “Photographer walking on court when he’s not supposed to could’ve just changed the entire match,” the US Open’s No. 4 seed tweeted.

Medvedev’s 2025 season has not been the best. The 29-year-old, who had risen to the pinnacle of the ATP rankings after reaching the Australian Open final for the second straight time in 2022, suffered a second-round exit in Melbourne, followed by first-round losses in Roland Garros and Wimbledon.