Daniil Medvedev loses temper amid Monte-Carlo rout, smashes racquet 7 times, dumps it in bin as rival says sorry | Tennis News

Daniil Medvedev had a nightmare encounter against Matteo Berrettini in their Round of 32 showdown at the Monte-Carlo Masters. The Russian crumbled in a 0-6, 0-6 defeat, and he was fuming throughout the match, smashing his racquet seven times.His anger was first visible in the first set when he was trailing 0-2. He smashed his racquet on the baseline and then picked it up, followed by throwing it towards a tarp at the end of the court. Then he picked it up again and kept on smashing it until it was destroyed enough to fit through an opening in a trash can.Also Read: Novak Djokovic hints at extended career beyond 39, says retirement not on mind yetMedvedev lost the match in 49 minutes and had five double faults, compared to Berrettini's none. He put only 36 per cent of his first serves in play, compared to Berrettini's 65 per cent. Meanwhile, he also won only 17 of the 67 points.Commenting on Medvedev's outburst, former world no. 1 doubles player Jamie Murray said, "It is shocking, it shouldn't happen... it did.""I am not sure how much effect that will have on him going forward. I think he will be pretty embarrassed walking into the locker room and will probably be wanting to get off site pretty quickly."He played so well in Indian Wells as well. He talks about clay not being his favourite surface and the difficulties he has on it but he won in Rome [in 2023] - if you can win in Rome, you can play on clay," he added.Meanwhile, Berrettini apologised to a Medvedev fan after his win. After his match, he signed the camera and wrote, "Scusa Carlo V."Explaining it later, he revealed that he was apologising to Italian actor and screenwriter Carlo Verdone, who recently said he was a huge fan of Medvedev.Speaking to Sky Sports Italy, he said, "The writing on the camera? It was for Carlo Verdone.""I know he's a fan of mine, but Medvedev is his favourite player, so I don't know who he was rooting for today. That's why I apologised to him."The result saw Berrettini become the fifth player (since the ATP rankings started in 1973) to beat a top-10 opponent 6-0, 6-0. The last time such a score happened was a decade ago, when David Goffin defeated Tomas Berdych at the Italian Open"I wouldn’t expect to win like that and it doesn’t happen that often," he said."It was definitely one of the best performances of my life. I think I missed three shots in the whole match."I faced two break points in the first game and then after that it felt I was playing better than him. I was not expecting to win zero, zero like that. But I kept my focus as I know one break or two breaks is not enough sometimes, so I kept pushing.“I have been playing for a long time, so I felt it was really important to hold my serve at the staIt is a matter ofset. Few points at the start and then when you go up two breaks you are more relaxed and the ball is [flying] out of your racquet,” he added.