Toni Nadal declared the Daniil Medvedev US Open chaos "another unfortunate spectacle" and called on the tennis authorities to introduce harsher sanctions.
Before falling short to Benjamin Bonzi in five sets in the US Open first round, Medvedev caused a wild scene after he started hurling strong words at a photographer but also chair umpire Greg Allensworth. To put further pressure on the umpire, the former world No. 1 even tried to encourage the crowd to boo louder. It caused a delay, which lasted nearly seven minutes.
As expected, the US Open authorities slapped the tournament's 2021 champion with a major fine, ordering him to pay $42.5k in fines - $30k for unsportsmanlike conduct and an additional $12.5k for abusing his racket.
ADVERTISEMENT
In his latest column for El Pais, Uncle Toni expressed his disbelief at "someone of Medvedev's stature being incapable of calming his nerves and that he is willing to give this image of himself."
Toni Nadal suggests financial punishments aren't enough after the Medvedev incident
After calling out Medvedev's behavior, Rafael Nadal's uncle suggested that sanctioning players financially isn't having the impact that it should. With that being said, he believes that the tennis authorities should start punishing players in some other ways as well.
"I believe that the time has come when tennis leaders should consider the possibility of applying sporting punishments to the increasingly common occurrence of tennis players breaking their rackets on the court. As well as for us to consider why this type of reprehensible attitudes occur more frequently in our sport than in other disciplines. I have never seen a ping-pong player break a paddle and, very rarely, a golfer punish his club after making a mistake," Toni Nadal added.
ADVERTISEMENT
Following his US Open exit, Medvedev said he didn't want to speak further because he was "already expecting a big fine." In the end, it arrived.
