Daniil Medvedev fumes and smashes racket as he suffers opening loss to de Minaur in Paris | Tennis | Sport
Daniil Medvedev smashed his racket in fury after losing his opening match at the Paris Masters on Wednesday. The world No 3 suffered his first-ever defeat to Alex de Minaur, who came through a three-set battle to win 6-4 2-6 7-5 after two hours and 46 minutes.
Medvedev suffered his first loss since retiring to Novak Djokovic in last month’s Astana Open semi-final as he was defeated by de Minaur in his opening match at the Paris Masters. The Russian arrived at the final Masters 1000 of the season fresh off the back of his 15th career title win in Vienna but crashed out in the second round.
The fourth seed in Paris was defending 600 ranking points from making the final last year but fell at the first hurdle as the Aussie earned the first top 5 win of his career. De Minaur held two match points on Medvedev’s serve at 5-4 in the final set but was unable to convert, with one being saved when the 26-year-old stopped the rally to challenge a ball and was successful.
But he held strong and managed to capitalise on his third match point with Medvedev serving at 5-6 down to stay in the match once again. And it prompted a furious outburst from the former world No 1, who smashed his racket to the ground after losing and could be seen talking to someone in the crowd in frustration.
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