Daniil Medvedev ‘out of control’ as star throws racket in the bin and loses 6-0 6-0 | Tennis | Sport

After dropping the first eight games in a row, the seventh seed had had enough. He turned to the back of the court and twice threw his racket. Medvedev continued to walk to his racket, pick it up, and hurl it to the ground, repeating several times until it was well and truly broken.

The outpouring of frustration didn’t help him, however, and he was sent packing without winning a single game. And Jamie Murray, the brother of three-time Major champion Andy, didn’t like what he saw during Medvedev’s meltdown.

“I mean, this is out-of-control stuff. Just doing it for the show at that point, don’t like to see it,” the two-time men’s doubles Grand Slam winner told Sky Sports.

“Also, some of the throws he’s going for, once that racket leaves your hand, it’s completely out of your control, who knows where it ends up. 6-0 2-0 and he was in all sorts of bother, wasn’t he? And it didn’t get any better for him.”

While Medvedev admittedly doesn’t like playing on clay, Murray was still shocked by the nature of his defeat. “It is shocking, yeah. I mean, it shouldn’t happen. It did,” he continued.

“I don’t know how much effect that will have on him going forward. I’m sure he will be pretty embarrassed walking back into the locker room, and I’d be wanting to get off-site pretty quickly, I think, if that was the performance I’d put in today.

“I mean, he played so well in Indian Wells as well. Obviously, he talks about clay not being his favourite surface and the difficulties he has on it, but he won in Rome, it was his only clay-court title, but if you can win in Rome, you can play on clay. It was a big surprise to see him go down with two eggs, but fair play to Berrettini for doing that, because it’s not an easy thing to do.”

Medvedev now has some time to regroup before heading to the Madrid Open, which begins on April 21. As one of the top seeds in the men’s draw, he won’t play his first match there until Friday or Saturday.

The world No. 10 seemed to rediscover his best form this season, lifting two titles in Brisbane and Dubai. He also finished runner-up in Indian Wells, where he became the first man this year to beat Carlos Alcaraz. But Medvedev lost in the third round of the Miami Open – also getting bagelled by Francisco Cerundolo – before a disappointing opening-round exit in Monaco.