Daniil Medvedev suffered a shock early exit at the ongoing Monte-Carlo Masters as he lost to Karen Khachanov 3-6, 5-7 in the round of 16 of the first clay tournament of the 2024 season.
The Russian lost the first set 3-6 but looked good in the second as they were stuck at 5-5 with Medvedev serving to go 6-5 up. The World No. 4 was down 15-30 during his service when the call was incorrectly called in by the umpire which didn’t make him any happier.
Medvedev, who had words with the chair umpire in his last match against Gael Monfils, did the same on Thursday as he went on to talk about the match supervisor after the match.
The former World No. 1 even criticised the referee for wearing shades, saying he didn’t need them as he did not see anything that was going on the court.
“Who will take action? Yesterday the ball was out. It’s called in. This ball is out there. Who will take responsibility? It’s not my responsibility to referee the matches. It’s this guy in the glasses. He doesn’t need glasses because he doesn't see anything... It’s 15-30 at 5-5. He should be out of the clay court circle... Why? It’s the 2nd day in a row. Open your eyes. Open your freaking eyes. Do something. It’s out," Medvedev said.
The Russian did a double fault and threw his racket in frustration while facing breakpoint, which gave the opportunity to his opponent to serve for the match and his countryman didn’t miss the opportunity and emerged the winner.
“Mentally, even though I’ve lost a few hard matches to him on hard courts, I know he doesn’t like to play on clay and that gives me some extra confidence,” Khachanov said in his on-court interview.
“Sometimes I know Daniil can lose his mind. Sometimes he uses it as a tool, but it can get out of control sometimes. I tried not to look at him or focus on him, and just serve it out.”