Daniil Medvedev made a winning return to competition just five days after being defaulted in the middle of the China Open semi-finals. The world No. 6 faced Novak Djokovic in a thrilling match, which saw the close first set last 80 minutes.
Djokovic was serving for a place in the final at 5-3 in the second set when Medvedev hit a ball away, which accidentally made contact with a spectator sitting behind the baseline. The umpire and supervisor quickly came over, and they had no choice but to disqualify an apologetic Medvedev.
Loss of Points and Prize Money
Because he was defaulted from the tournament, the Russian lost the 200 ranking points and £166k ($219k) in prize money that he should have earned for reaching the semi-finals. Medvedev can appeal this, but given that he quickly accepted the disqualification, this seems unlikely.
The former US Open champion has also since apologised publicly and privately, meeting the spectator after the match and giving them a signed racket.
Winning Return in Shanghai
Medvedev has now bounced back from the unfortunate incident, coming from behind to win his opening match at the Shanghai Masters days after that default. The 2019 champion in Shanghai battled back from a set down to beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6 6-4 6-3, booking his place in the third round.
The world No. 6 now has an 8-1 record in China this year, his sole loss being the default. Medvedev lifted the title in Hangzhou before heading to Beijing, where he got to the semis before the disqualification. And he's now off and running in Shanghai.
Fine Form and Next Challenge
The fifth seed looked in fine form in his opening match against Struff, despite dropping the opening set. Medvedev fired down 21 aces and hit 18 winners, finishing up with a performance rating of 8.8 for the match. He'll now face qualifier Dalibor Svrcina, who stunned 28th seed Tomas Etcheverry in round two.
Had Medvedev not lost the 200 ranking points for his Beijing run, he would have returned to the world's top five for the first time since January 2025. But the 30-year-old was more concerned about the spectator he unintentionally struck.
Moments after being defaulted on Monday, Medvedev said: "Terribly sorry to the spectator, first of all. I'm trying to get in touch with him, if he wants it. Hopefully I can apologise in person and see how he feels."
The former world No. 1 confirmed that it was "100 per cent [an] accident" and explained: "You can see that I didn't hit the ball in anger. Actually I do a lot of bad things, but usually ball abuse is not my thing. The ball was bouncing back, so I tried to, like, just hit it anywhere, so it doesn't go out from the court."
"When I saw the result, I mean, I felt horrible because, again, I don't think I was ever close to such a situation. So yeah, the most important, I hope that he's okay 'cause you never know with these types of situations."
