ATP Cup 2022: Doctor called to court as player in Georgia v Greece clash struggles to breathe

Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashivili was escorted from the court by medical staff after complaining of shortness of breath during his country’s clash with Greece on Wednesday.

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Qudos Bank Arena. Image: Stan Sport/Nine

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Sydney’s ATP Cup on Wednesday night when Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashivili began struggling to breathe early in his match with world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, forcing play to be cancelled.

Tsitsipas led 4-1 in the first set when play was brought to an abrupt halt at Team Georgia’s request.

A doctor and physiotherapist attended to a visibly rattled Basilashvili, who sat courtside with his Georgian teammates.

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The Georgian World No. 22 was struggling to breathe. Picture: Stan Sport/Nine

“This is concerning, very concerning I would say,” Colin Fleming said in commentary for Stan Sport.

“If you feel like you can’t take any kind of deep breath at this level and this intensity, that’s an issue.”

In the broadcast of the game, Basilashvili could be heard telling his team “every shot I’m out of breath”.

Soon afterwards, he repeatedly told medical staff he was “struggling to breathe”.

Basilashvili was not hobbled as medical staff assisted him from the court, but did appear shaken. When he returned from the dressing rooms, play was called off and the match was awarded to Tsitsipas and Team Greece.

The victory brought Tsitsipas’ four-game singles losing streak to an end in unique circumstances.

Despite struggling with an elbow injury this week, Tsitsipas returned to the court for the doubles match against Georgia shortly afterwards.

Earlier on Wednesday, Poland stunned the Argentinians, who had not lost a single match before Wednesday, winning every set in their tie to qualify for the semi-finals.

Elsewhere, Spain claimed a tie victory over Serbia to lock up Group A’s spot in the semi-finals. World No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut was the hero for Spain in the group stage, polishing off Norway’s Casper Ruud and Christian Garin of Chile, both of whom are ranked higher than he is, in straight sets.

Poland proved an unlikely powerhouse at the ATP Cup.

Having lost the doubles match against Russia on Tuesday, Australia is out of the semi-final race, but faces France on Thursday evening for its last tie.

Italy and Russia will tussle for Group B’s spot in the semi-finals at Ken Rosewall Arena on Thursday morning.

All four teams in Group C remain in the hunt for a semi-final berth.

The British will qualify if they win their tie with the USA at Qudos Bank Arena on Thursday and Germany defeats Canada.

However, if the British win and Canada wins, it’ll be the Canadians advancing to the next stage of the tournament.

America has the chance to make the semi-finals as well, but will need to defeat Great Britain and hope Canada beats Germany.

Germany is set to advance to the final if it defeats Canada and the USA beats Great Britain.

Demon dust: Medvedev sends brutal Aus Open warning

- Julian Linden

Even with the benefit of a last-minute medical exemption, Novak Djokovic is going to have his work cut out if he wants to be crowned the GOAT as early as this month.

No one with even the most basic knowledge of what really greases the wheels of professional tennis will be surprised that the Serbian has been given the green light to chase a record 21st grand slam title in Melbourne.

Whether you love him or loathe him, Djokovic’s bid to move ahead of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal on the major winners list will be must-watch television but he won’t have it all his own way.

The same man who ruined his calendar year grand slam bid in 2021 is still looming as his biggest obstacle after an ominous showing at the ATP Cup in Sydney.

Daniil Medvedev’s 6-4, 6-2 demolition of Australia’s Alex de Minaur at the Ken Rosewall Arena will not have gone unnoticed by the Serb as he packs his bags and heads to the airport for the long trip from Europe to Melbourne.

Alex de Minaur lost in straight sets to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Cup. Picture: Muhammad Farooq/AFP

Not only did Medvedev ruin Australia’s chances of securing a semi-final place in the ATP Cup team event by securing an unassailable 2-0 lead for Russia, but he reminded everyone why his win over Djokovic in last year’s US Open final was no fluke.

Ranked 34th in the world, de Minaur is no pushover because he plays with all his heart but Medvedev was in another league.

He had made a rusty start to the ATP Cup, losing his opening match against Frenchman Ugo Humbertin a third-set tie-breaker, but showed how quickly he can raise his game to another level but that’s not the most worrying news for his opponents.

“To be honest, I was not feeling great,” Medvedev said. “I didn‘t tell this to anybody from my team because I knew that I have to go out, have to try to win.

“So I took some painkillers and I was able to play some good tennis.”

That’s a big understatement from the lanky Russian, who is ranked No.2 in the world and also at skinny odds, just behind Djokovic, to win the first major of the year.

He may also be the sentimental favourite with Djokovic likely to be many people’s public enemy No.1. De Minaur was unsure what to make of the news that Djokovic was allowed to play the Australian Open.

“It‘s just very interesting, that’s all I’m going to say. But, hey, it is what it is,” the Australian said. “I just hope that the other players that I heard there were other cases as well, they got exemptions, so I hope they will all fit the criteria.”

Daniil Medvedev is showing strong form at the ATP Cup. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

De Minaur was more expansive when asked about Medvedev’s current form.

“He’s a very tactical player in the sense of he baits you very well to go for a lot. He’s obviously a very good mover with very good end-range shots,” de Minaur said.

“I mean, to beat him you got to obviously be aggressive and take the net, but at the same time you don‘t want to over press and I feel like I did a bit of that today and made a couple too many unforced errors.

“It’s a tricky one because you got to find that balance between being too aggressive and not being too passive.”

Australia were eliminated from semi-final contention after also losing the doubles and the first singles rubber when James Duckworth suffered a surprise 7-6 6-4 loss to Roman Safiullin.

A late withdrawal from the victory over Italy, Duckworth opened up an early 5-2 lead over Safiullin before the Russian fought back and won.

“I didn‘t serve well the whole match,” Duckworth said.

“I was having some long service games on my serve, but, yeah, a lot of it came down to just not being able to land first serves in key moments.”

Australia plays France on Thursday but cannot advance regardless of whether they win.

The group will now be decided by whoever wins between Russia and Italy after the Italians stayed in the hunt with an impressive 3-0 win over France.