Daniil Medvedev smashes racket five times and erupts after being bagelled by Jannik Sinner | Tennis | Sport

Daniil Medvedev took his anger out on his racket as he collapsed in a terrible performance against Jannik Sinner in Saudi Arabia. The Russian was bagelled in the first set before allowing his frustrations to get the better of him in the second.

Medvedev and Sinner met in the quarter-final of the Six Kings Slam this evening. The Italian stormed to a remarkable 6-0 first-set success, before winning a much tighter second set to progress.

And having failed to make the most of a break point at 3-4, Medvedev allowed his anger to take control. The 28-year-old angrily threw his racket to the court.

He then collected his racket but it was not long before it was hurtling towards the hard-court surface once again. Medvedev missed another opportunity to gain an advantage at deuce and smacked his racket on the floor. He held himself back from doing it a third time.

But the world No. 5 could not help himself as Sinner took an advantage. He slammed the ground twice more before doing it for a fifth time at deuce with Sinner leading 5-3 in the second set.

It was not all bad for Medvedev, though. Just by turning up, the former US Open champion earned around £1million. However, he will miss out on the £4.6m prize after his quarter-final defeat.

Sinner said during his on-court interview: “It was a very good performance considering I arrived a couple days ago. I had only one practice. I was looking forward to coming here. It’s a special place.

“Us players love it. It’s very very new. We are some of the best six tennis players in the world. Hopefully you enjoy the next match, which for us, is the most important part. Thank you very much for coming.”

Sinner will face Novak Djokovic in the semi-final tomorrow, with a quick turnaround between each round of the tournament. Djokovic and fellow tennis icon Rafael Nadal were given byes to the last-four. The Spaniard will face either Holger Rune or countryman Carlos Alcaraz.

Nadal is participating in his penultimate tournament ahead of his retirement. The 38-year-old announced last week that he will bow out after next month’s Davis Cup Finals. He has struggled with fitness issues for the best part of two years and his last outing came at the Olympics, where he participated in the singles and doubles.