Danill Medvedev faced a tough Australian Open, both on and off the court. The Russian tennis player, ranked No. 5 in the world and a runner-up in the previous year’s tournament, struggled against 418th-ranked Kasidit Samrej, a wild-card entry from Thailand. In his first match on Tuesday, Medvedev smashed his racket, which caused damage to a net camera. This incident, along with his outbursts during the second match against Learner Tien, ended up being costly. Despite the initial camera-smashing event, which resulted in some humorous ESPN commentary from John and Patrick McEnroe, he managed to edge past Samrej in five sets (6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2). However, in the second round, he fell to 19-year-old American Tien in another five-set match (6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (8-10), 1-6, 7-6 (10-7)). Throughout the match, Medvedev repeatedly voiced complaints about the umpire’s calls and even threw his racket towards the advertising boards. Following this match, which concluded at 2:54 a.m. local time in Melbourne, he chose to skip the mandatory post-match press conference.
Such behavior led to fines totaling $76,000 U.S., broken down to $10,000 for the camera incident and $66,000 for issues during the second round. Given that he earned only $124,000 for his early exit, the fines represented more than half of his tournament winnings. Although Medvedev made over $6.5 million in winnings the prior year, this experience still marked a disappointing Australian Open. Nevertheless, he managed to escape with a fine that was capped at $200,000, which could be seen as a silver lining to his rough tournament.
In a somewhat ironic twist, Medvedev had initially predicted that the camera incident would not lead to significant financial repercussions. He remarked, “The camera was very, very strong, because my racket didn’t handle the damage, but the camera did. I was very surprised.” He also noted that while the fine usually pertains to breaking a racket, he didn’t believe the camera would incur steep costs, indicating, “I don’t think Go Pro is that expensive.” In this context, he was somewhat accurate, especially when considering the larger fines from his later conduct. Skipping press conferences is not new in tennis, but hefty fines serve to deter players from doing so. The current trend may see an increase in players avoiding the media without serious penalties.
Adding a layer of humor to the situation, Tien gained his own moment in the spotlight post-victory over Medvedev. During an almost five-minute on-court interview with Australian commentator John Fitzgerald, things took a quirky turn. Fitzgerald made several unusual comments, such as, “19-year-olds are not meant to be this good,” to which Tien humorously responded, “I don’t know what to say to that.” Fitzgerald also mentioned, “I used to live in Newport Beach so I know where you live, by the way,” while commenting on Tien’s achievement in the first five-setter that year to go to a super tiebreak. One noteworthy question arose about Tien’s thoughts following a third-set loss and a lopsided fourth-set loss, to which Tien candidly replied, “Honestly, in the fourth set, I just had to pee so bad. So I was just trying to finish it up fairly quick.”
This marks at least the second surprising bathroom overshare during the Australian Open, but it was both truthful and amusing in this context. Unlike Medvedev’s press-related antics, it is unlikely to incur any fines.
