BEIJING — Daniil Medvedev was defaulted from his China Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic in Beijing after lightly hitting a ball into the crowd that struck a spectator in the face, a moment of madness that came as the former world No 1 was heading to defeat and cost him his prize money and ranking points. Former American ATP stars Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson agree the default was correct, but insist stripping the Russian of his points and money was too severe.
Speaking on the latest episode of ‘Nothing Major’, Querrey said: “[Daniil] Medvedev lightly hit a ball into the crowd; in my opinion, it hit a spectator in the face, yes, he probably should be defaulted [but] that dude sold it; his head was down. I would love to see a spectator get hit, pick the ball up and fire it back at Medvedev; how good would that be.” Johnson added: “In my opinion, if you hit a fan like that, you’re defaulted. I think it’s black and white. That being said, the intent was not to hit somebody from Medvedev; he should not lose his points and money. That’s crazy; that’s a lot of points for him after the US Open, that he needs to make the year-end top eight. He can’t just lose 200 points; that’s a big number, given where he is in the rankings. I get it; he should be defaulted; there was no intent there. He shouldn’t lose his points and money, in my opinion.”
Querrey stressed the incident should be judged case by case, saying: “You’ve got to look at it case by case; the intent was not there. It was not a malicious firing of the ball; he kind of hit it there softly. Dude, the man had his head down. Man up. Gosh, that was weak.” Johnson highlighted the stakes in the Live ATP Race to Turin, where Medvedev sits eighth in the final qualification spot. The 200-point deduction has proved costly — he would have been 490 points clear of the chasing pack had he retained those points in Beijing.
Now in Shanghai, Medvedev needs a strong run to cement his place in the top eight as he looks to return to the year-end finals having missed out 12 months ago. He will begin his Shanghai Masters campaign on Friday, 10 October, against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, an opponent he leads 9-2 in their head-to-head after securing his ninth win last time out in Beijing. Victory would set up a third-round meeting with Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Dalibor Svrcina, with a potential last-16 clash against Luciano Darderi, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Arnaldi or Taylor Fritz.
A quarter-final could pit the 30-year-old against Carlos Alcaraz, who leads their head-to-head 6-3 although Medvedev won their last meeting at Indian Wells this year. Felix Auger-Aliassime could await in the semi-finals and Alexander Zverev in the final, but Medvedev will not want to look too far ahead. He is a former champion in Shanghai, lifting the trophy seven years ago, although he has not returned to the final since.