Daniil Medvedev won his opening match against French teenager Arthur Fils at the Vienna Open almost effortlessly but can count himself fortunate to escape a disqualification.
Yes, Medvedev was a lucky boy. He was seemingly cruising in his match, taking the first set 6-4, and had a double break advantage to lead 5-1 in the second set. But a reckless off-the-point incident after an unreturnable serve by Fils nearly landed Medvedev in hot water.
Fils had served an ace down the T, and the ball ricocheted off the advertising board. Medvedev was following the trajectory of the ball after failing to get any purchase on his return. As the ball came off the backboard, he hit the ball straight into a fan close to him on the front seats.
It was tough to tell whether it was a reflex action by the Russian or perhaps he was probably aiming to hit the ball back on the board adjacent to the baseline, and completely miscalculated his shot. But there was no malice or ill intention by the top seed, who quickly apologized to the woman who was hit in the face.
Medvedev got away with one on the court for his actions. But he was not spared on social media as tennis fans blasted the ATP for applying double standards when it comes to exercising rules on misconduct, considering that similar incidents have resulted in automatic defaults, most notably the high-profile DQ Novak Djokovic received at the 2020 US Open.
Also, very recently Australia's Marc Polmans was defaulted for inadvertently hitting at the chair umpire in Shanghai. One fan was shocked at how Medvedev escaped the incident not even getting a warning from the umpire.
The comment read, "Yesterday, Medvedev struck the ball onto a fan's face. Rules state it's an automatic default and judging by Medvedev's reaction he thought he would be defaulted. But remember the rules only seem to apply to Novak Djokovic. Medvedev didn't even get a warning."
Rules should be applied uniformly to all players. One fan argued that Medvedev did not deserve a default, but called for consistency in decision-making and fair treatment in matches, saying, "Not that I think Medvedev should be defaulted but we need some sort of consistency here man."
"Wow! Such double standards!!" another surprised reaction. The chair umpire was certainly lenient towards the Russian and should have abided by the protocol according to another commenter who said, "I think the umpire here has landed themselves in hot water here. Clearly hasn't followed the correct protocol."
One fan saw the funny side of it and called for a season ticket to be granted to the victim, "Referees do make mistakes. They are humans After all. A clear default with a season ticket for this spectator should be correct."
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