Australian Open: Daniil Medvedev happy to play villain, but not accept consequences

Daniil Medvedev mid-tantrum during his semi-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas

Daniil Medvedev, the pantomime villain of world tennis, has spent two weeks plotting, scheming, spitting and snarling around Melbourne Park, twirling his figurative moustache. And now he wonders why no one likes him.

“He’s behind you,” someone should have shouted to Rafael Nadal, as the Russian bad guy tried to bring him undone in the Australian Open men’s singles final.

Medvedev fell foul of a Rod Laver Arena crowd willing Nadal on to his record 21st grand slam. They booed him, they cheered his mistakes, they roared for Rafa. And in the press conference after the final, Medvedev announced that Australian crowds had destroyed his dream.

Young Daniil, growing up in Moscow, had dreamt of playing in stadium courts around the world — but that was now dead. “From now on I’m playing for myself, for my family, to provide my family, for people that trust in me, of course for all the Russians because I feel a lot of support there,” he said.

It’s a petulant and disingenuous reaction from someone who has built his career on being the antihero of the ATP tour.

Medvedev has been smashing racquets and courtside chairs and abusing rivals, ballkids, fans and umpires since the start of his career — and using the negative energy to his advantage.

He admitted it himself when the crowd booed him during a third-round match against Spaniard Feliciano Lopez at the 2019 US Open. After snatching his towel from an innocent ballboy, he said in the post-match interview: “Your energy tonight gave me the win. Because, if you were not here guys, I would probably lose this match.”

He was battling late in the second set of his Australian Open semi-final against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas when he launched into a tantrum reminiscent of a two-year-old flailing arms and legs on a supermarket floor. That dose of negative energy helped him to turn the match around and win in four sets.

Medvedev has been up to the same sort of thing for years. At the 2018 Miami Open, he muttered something along the lines of “You, me, carpark now” to Tsitsipas in a dispute over toilet breaks.

In Sunday night’s final he screamed at the chair umpire about the crowd’s “empty brains”.

“Their lives must be very bad,” he said.

After seeing off Nick Kyrgios in the opening week of the tournament, he suggested the crowd had a “low IQ”.

The cumulative effect of all this spitting and snarling is that a growing proportion of tennis fans don’t like him much. And what does he expect?

Medvedev was never going to be the crowd favourite in Sunday night’s final. Nadal is a much-loved hero of the sport on a quest for a historic victory.

American Danielle Collins didn’t seem to have much strife getting her head round the fact that the hometown crowd would be almost entirely behind Ash Barty in the women’s final on Saturday.

Medvedev is within his rights to play the villain and to turn the negative vibes from the crowd into motivation. But to then complain about not being loved just doesn’t wash.

If you want the crowds to support you, Daniil, try not being such a ratbag.