Medvedev fined $76K for his Australian Open outbursts

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Daniil Medvedev has been fined a total of $76,000 for his camera and racket smashing outbursts during the first two rounds of the Australian Open.

The fines were published Sunday by Australian Open organizers, two days after Medvedev's unexpected second-round exit.

The 2021 U.S. Open champion destroyed a tiny camera hanging in the net by repeatedly smacking it with his racket during a surprisingly difficult, five-set, first-round win over Kasidit Samrej, who was ranked 418th. He was fined $10,000 for the first-round infringement.

Medvedev was penalized a point during his second-round loss to 19-year-old American qualifier Learner Tien for showing similar signs of frustration. He was fined $66,000 for his second-round code violations.

After getting broken to trail 4-3 in the second set when Tien delivered a lob that landed at the baseline, Medvedev chucked his equipment toward the sideline, skidding it across the court until it reached an advertising panel near his bench.

At other moments of anger, Medvedev hit a ball against the back wall, toppled a camera behind a baseline and punched his racket bag. He also voiced displeasure about being called for two consecutive foot-faults, resulting in a double-fault, during the second-set tiebreaker.

The 4-hour, 49-minute second-round contest ended shortly before 3 a.m. on Friday.

Medvedev was seeded No. 5 at Melbourne Park, where he was the runner-up in three of the past four years, including 12 months ago.

This was Medvedev’s first tournament of the season — his wife recently gave birth to their second child — and the 28-year-old Russian never really displayed his best tennis.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis