Daniil Medvedev is known for his antics during matches, and he got himself into trouble again during his latest match at the Shanghai Masters.
Medvedev entered the tournament in Shanghai after reaching the semifinal of the China Open. Despite the match being of high quality, he lost to the eventual champion, Carlos Alcaraz, in straight sets.
Fans may be shocked that Medvedev has not won a title since May 2023, and that came on clay, his least favored surface, at the Italian Open. He overcame Holger Rune in the final in Rome nearly 17 months ago.
A significant reason for the 2021 US Open champion's title drought is his struggle against Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. His four defeats in finals since October 2023 were against either Sinner or Alcaraz.
Medvedev's repeated losses to the pair must be a source of frustration, but he continues to work hard on his game. The 28-year-old started his China Open campaign with a comfortable win against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Matteo Arnaldi was Medvedev's opponent in the following round. The Italian has substantially improved his game in the last 12 months, and the No. 5 seed had to work hard for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
However, Medvedev fighting back from a set down did not generate the most attention on social media after the match. Many were more interested in the six-time Grand Slam finalist receiving two code violations in the space of 30 seconds.
Medvedev has heavily criticized the balls used at the Shanghai Masters, arguing that they are too slow and almost impossible to hit winners with after a few games of using them.
As seen in the first video below, Medvedev pretends to rub one of the balls against the back of his shorts to demonstrate the disdain for them he has spoken about since the start of the tournament.
That act led to the umpire handing the 2019 Shanghai Masters champion his first violation, but an unhappy Medvedev could not contain himself and turned his attention to the umpire afterward.
As seen in the second video below, Medvedev covered his mouth and appeared to direct words to the umpire on three occasions. Despite the umpire telling him to calm down after the first time, Medvedev continued.
After not reacting the first two times, the umpire handed the former US Open winner a second code violation and a point penalty. He felt he had no choice after giving the Russian two opportunities to stop.
Medvedev spoke about the incident in his press conference after the match. The 28-year-old revealed he did not actually say anything behind his hand to the umpire and thinks it works best for him to do what feels authentic to him on the court.
"Well, that's the thing, you know. I tried many different things in my career, trying to stay calm, trying to be, sometimes, not try, but sometimes I go very crazy. And I think, you know, what works is whatever you feel like will work in the moment."
"What I did is, I got angry when they first called violation, so I made an impression that I'm saying something under my hand or under my mouth, how do you say it, but I didn't say anything. I wasn't muttering something like, oh, you're bad, you're bad, you're bad."
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