Daniil Medvedev just barely avoided being disqualified from his semi-final match against Carlos Alcaraz at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
The Russian player faced a mammoth task when entering the Centre Court at Wimbledon on Friday afternoon. Like last year, he had to play against Alcaraz in the semi-final, and after losing 3-6, 3-6, 3-6 in last year’s match, he certainly wanted to avoid the same fate this year.
Early on, it was clear that he was a man on a mission. The former World No. 1 faced a break point in the opening game of the match, but in the following games, he was the better player, breaking Alcaraz’s serve to lead 3-1.
Although he lost that one-break advantage immediately, his Spanish opponent was not serving really well at the time, so he lost his serve again, and at 5-3, Medvedev was serving to win the first set.
However, his opponent applied pressure and created three break point chances, leading 40-love. Thanks to his serve, the Russian managed to save the first two to make it 30-40 from his point of view.
In the following rally, Medvedev chased one of Alcaraz’s shorter balls, and even though he managed to get it on the other side of the net, the match umpire, Eva Asderaki, called the ball ‘not up’, meaning that it bounced twice before the 28-year-old hit it.
Angry about losing the point, which as the replay showed, could have possibly continued, even though it wasn’t easy to determine whether the ball bounced twice or not, the Russian player directed some words at the match umpire.
Replays showed it was a mix of different swear words, but unless the fifth seed confirms what exactly he said, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what words were ushered toward the 42-year-old umpire from Greece.
Yet, it was clear after a few seconds that those words had to be serious enough for Asderaki to call the tournament supervisor and possibly discuss the Russian player’s disqualification from the match.
The discussion continued for some time, even exceeding the period during which players should have rested, making it even more clear that the situation was really serious.
Medvedev wouldn’t be the first ATP player disqualified for swearing at an umpire this year, as his compatriot, Andrey Rublev, was defaulted from a match in Dubai earlier this year for a similar offense.
Still, he avoided the same fate, as after the conversation with the tournament supervisor, Asderaki determined that Medvedev’s offense was worthy only a warning and code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Former World No. 4 on the ATP Tour, Tim Henman, who commentated on the match for BBC, detailed the situation, explaining the difference between just swearing and verbally abusing the umpire.
“If you use a swear word you’re going to get a code violation and a warning and a fine, but if you verbally abuse the umpire, that’s when there’s a question mark. It could be a default.”
