John McEnroe admits he "loved every minute" of Daniil Medvedev's explosive US Open outburst, but also reveals he has some major concerns for "a tapped out" Russian.
After a photographer made his way onto the court just as Medvedev was facing a match point and Benjamin Bonzi was about to serve a second serve, chair umpire Greg Allensworth stepped in and called for the point to be replayed. The rest was pure chaos as the Russian ranted for the next six months – hurled some strong words at the photographer and the chair umpire – while also encouraging the crowd to boo as loudly as possible and support him that way.
When the match finally continued after more than six minutes of delay, Medvedev stunningly avoided a straight-set defeat and ultimately sent the match into a fifth set. But just when it started to seem that the 2021 US Open champion would create an epic comeback, Bonzi upped his level and won 6-3 7-5 6-7 (5) 0-6 6-4.
On the Nothing Major Show – a podcast hosted by John Isner, Sam Querrey, Jack Sock and Steve Johnson – McEnroe joined as a guest. To no one's surprise, the fiery American tennis legend had to be asked about the Medvedev case.
McEnroe: I loved every minute of the Medvedev situation… But he has tapped out months ago
“Besides loving every minute of it? Well you know, he already has tapped out, like months ago. So I’ve been worried about his level ’cause he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing at this point, to me, for a guy that good on hard courts. So this sort of cemented it, like how little confidence he has in anything. But I was sorta hoping, I gotta admit — not at Bonzi’s expense because he showed a lot of balls at the end, to me, in the fifth set — but I was sort of hoping Medvedev would win that," the American tennis icon said.
For quite some time, Medvedev's consistency just hasn't been there and he is just 26-18 after picking up a US Open first-round exit.
“But he has got to get his act together. I’m not sure he can. I think he’s so lost right now, I’m not sure what’s gonna happen with him in the future," McEnroe added.
