When Terence Atmane pushed third seed Daniil Medvedev hard at the Australian Open on Monday, he broke his racquet, served underhand, and retired in tears because he had a major cramp.
The amateur had a hard time in the blazing heat on Margaret Court Arena. She shocked the Russian by winning the first set, but she couldn’t keep going when she was down 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0.
Medvedev, who has won the event twice, said, “The conditions were brutal.” “The more he (Atmane) plays this intensity, the better he will be prepared.”
AUSTRALIAN OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men
He also said, “I’m just glad to be through.” “I played bad at the beginning in the first set, but I was happy I could regain momentum.”
In the first set, Medvedev broke for 2-1 and quickly got ahead 5-3, but Atmane tied the match at 5-5 when Medvedev missed a lob.
The Frenchman, playing in his first Grand Slam, held serve and then broke again to win the set and leave the world number three shaking his head in shock.
Before Atmane got really crampy during the second set, Medvedev woke up to steam through it.
He used underarm serves because he was having trouble moving, and when he lost serve and fell behind 2-1 in the third set, he smashed his racquet.
Still in pain, the 22-year-old played hard and mixed underarm and overarm serves until Medvedev won the third set.
But he had to quit because he lost the first game of the fourth set. He cried as his tournament ended.
Before the match, Medvedev said that he is trying to “mature” and do fewer “stupid things” on court to get rid of his image as a tennis bad guy. In the next round, he will play Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland, who is not ranked.
It’s not unusual for the Russian to lose it on the court, which has made fans love and hate him.
He was mostly good when he was with Atmane, but he did complain about the water bottles.
Medvedev lost to Novak Djokovic in the 2021 Melbourne final and Rafael Nadal the next year, which caused him to lose form.
but has come back strong and won 66 games last season, more than any other player on the tour.
