Daniil Medvedev insisted he never intended to turn the US Open crowd against Benjamin Bonzi and claimed that he was actually "glad" that he ended up losing the match.
If you can recall, Medvedev delivered one of the most chaotic moments of the 2025 season when he caused a six-minute delay after a photographer started moving as he was down by two sets and facing a match point against Bonzi. The Russian tennis star started heavily arguing with the chair umpire - ranted about the photographer - and even started cheering for the crowd to boo the chair umpire and the photographer.
When the action continued, Medvedev stunningly managed to send the match to five sets, but fell short of completing a comeback as the Frenchman won their US Open first-round match 6-3 7-5 6-7 (5) 0-6 6-4.
ADVERTISEMENT
Medvedev: I didn't hype the crowd to boo Bonzi
"I didn't hype the crowd to boo him or anything like that. Deep down I'm glad I didn't win because it would've been very ugly towards him, and I wouldn't want that," the world No. 13 told Russian tennis blogger Sofya Tartakova.
After the incident and the loss, Medvedev spoke in a reserved manner because he expected a huge fine and didn't want to say anything that would have made that fine bigger. Later, the 30-year-old was slapped with a $42.5k fine for his on-court actions.
