I've been watching the Australian Open quite closely this year and in particular the men's division as it whittled down to 12 remaining players. I can't watch every single match because they are sometimes 4 hours long and for me anyway, they are on in the middle of the night. I catch the big ones and what a massive one the battle between Medvedev and Zverev was last night.!
At the start it looked like it was going to be another surprising victory for the underdog just like happened to Nole earlier in the day when Alexander Zverev beat Danlil Medvedev in the first 2 sets, the 2nd of which he made it look easy by ending it 6-3.
I think at this point most Medvedev fans had already resigned themselves to defeat and accepted that the world number 1, 2, and 3 were not going to be in the final at this particular Grand Slam.
Once in the 3rd set Medvedev appeared to get more of his game back but he still ended up in a tiebreak and things got really tense when the Russian double-faulted in the tiebreak when it was 4-4. At this point I think the entire world just presumed that the match was over but the next 2 points went to Danlil, one of which was in absolutely spectacular fashion that had the crowd cheering about as loud as I have heard a crowd cheer at any tennis event.
Things were tense in the 3rd as it remained even all the way through to yet another tiebreak that saw the Russian barely keep his hopes alive for victory here. You have to keep in mind that it isn't very often that a person goes down 2 sets in a best of three and manages to still emerge victorious. For anyone that follows Danlil Medvedev, you probably know that this happens to him quite frequently and this is part of the reason why watching his matches is so nerve-wrecking.
Alexander started to get frustrated later in the match and decided to take it out on the net and unfortunately for him, this is likely the photo that will be most remembered from all that happened that day.
I don't have any idea what the punishments can eventually be for acting like this but Zverov was given a warning for unsportsmanlike behavior. That was all he needed to calm down I guess but I think at this point his frustration just got the best of him since Medvedev cruised to relatively easy victory in the 5th set, winning it 6-3.
Now here comes the part where I suggest that Zverev is perhaps a bit of a poor sport. I really like it when people can just lose with dignity and praise their opponent for simply playing a bit better than they did. I don't appreciate it when they attempt to blame the loss on anything else. here is what the German had to say
“End of the second set I started to lose energy. I started to not feel so fresh anymore. I got a bit sick after the Alcaraz match with a bit of fever and stuff like that. It’s frustrating. But for me it’s more frustrating that I didn’t feel 100 per cent physically. It kind of took the chance away. I lost it because of a physical state, not because of tennis.”
It's pretty convenient to blame an illness right around the exact moment that you started to lose. Even if this is the case and it very well may be that he is playing ill or tired, this is something that all of us have to deal with the potential of in sports or just life and you don't ever blame a loss on that.
By saying that he is suggesting that Danlil didn't play better than he did, but it was just because he had the flu that he didn't win. To me it just seems like he is being a sore loser. Only one person can win any of these tournaments and I can understand that to be this close and not get to the final must really be difficult to deal with, but that's no reason to make excuses.