Daniil Medvedev bounced back from his on-court meltdown on Monday to produce a dominant victory against Alex De Minaur in the round-robin of the ATP Nitto Finals.
The Russian star had vented his fury by smashing his racket on the ground and throwing it into the air during his straight-sets defeat by Taylor Fritz earlier in the week.
It came following a very uncharacteristic performance from the former US Open champion, who hit eight double faults during his opening match at the finals.
On Tuesday, the 28-year-old cut a much more composed figure, dispatching De Minaur 6-2 6-4 and leaving the 25-year-old Australian’s hopes of securing a berth in the knockout stages of the finals hanging by a very thin thread.
While De Minaur attempted to claw his way into the match, the 2020 champion was just too strong and it also seemed he had a point to prove, smashing 25 winners past the Aussie star to clinch victory.
Daniil Medvedev bizarrely stuck his fingers in his ears and claimed he was ‘blocking out the noise’ after beating Alex De Minaur 2-0 on Tuesday
It came after Medvedev’s on-court meltdown following his defeat by Taylor Fritz on Monday
De Minaur was blown off the court by Daniil Medvedev during Tuesday’s match in his second-straight defeat at the event
After the match, Medvedev walked over to the television cameras and appeared to write the words ‘block the noise’ with a smiley face on the lens.
He wheeled away from the cameras before placing both fingers in his ears and stood for a moment as the crowd applauded his performance.
He’d later provide an explanation for the gesture, claiming that he had followed suit of Dutch footballer, Memphis Depay.
‘I think a lot of football players do it. Maybe Memphis Depay was the first,’ Medvedev said.
‘If I understand it right, it’s about social media and stuff. After my performance against Taylor and some of my comments, I went into this match blocking the noise even from myself.
‘No tantrums, just block the noise, I didn’t care what was happening on the court, just tried to play and it was a good feeling.
‘It’s just good to do it sometimes for yourself. The more popular you become the more fans you get, the more haters you get, the more attention, sometimes even the good noise can make you off balance.
Medvedev had smashed his racket on the floor of the court in a fit of rage during his defeat by Fritz
But he seemed to have shrugged off the woes of his previous match and delivered a sensational performance to despatch De Minaur
Footballer Memphis Depay has previously performed the celebration and has previously given the rationale for the gesture, also claiming he was blocking out noise from others
De Minaur did not play poorly, but was simply outclassed by the Russian, who hit 24 winners
It left De Minaur’s hopes of securing a berth in the knockouts of the competition hanging by a thread
‘You win everything and you are a god, and then you lose two matches in a row and everyone is like ‘your career is finished’. Sometimes it’s good to just block it and I did it well today.’
It comes after a long season in which the 2020 ATP finals winner has not won an event this year. He came agonisingly close in January after he was bested in the finals of the Australian Open by Jannik Sinner before being usurped by Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s final at Indian Wells.
Medvedev took the first set in 40 minutes and pressed De Minaur from the off.
The Australian managed to save a break point in the opening game, but his opponent applied more pressure, breaking him again in the third and fourth exchanges.
While the Russian took command of the match, De Minaur’s work fending off his attacks, bounding from tramline to tramline was commendable.
A cagey second set would follow, with Medvedev having to wait until the ninth game for an opening, where he would break De Minaur to go 5-4 up and subsequently serve out for a 6-4 win.
Having now suffered two defeats on his ATP Finals debut, De Minaur’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages on his debut at the tournament have been left hanging by a thread.
He’ll face Fritz next on Thursday and will need to seal victory by a big margin to have a chance of progressing.
