Jimmy Connors commends Daniil Medvedev’s passionate on-court outbursts as an effective means of engaging fans, particularly following the World No. 3’s dispute with the audience during the 2023 Paris Masters.
Medvedev has had an up-and-down relationship with crowds at various tournaments over the years. He even became the “villain” of the 2019 US Open, encouraging the crowd to boo him in each of his matches as he claimed it spurred him on to win more.
However, he was less willing to see the silver lining in his clash with Grigor Dimitrov at the Paris Masters last week. The 27-year-old suffered a surprise defeat to the then World No. 17, losing the match after a tight three-set battle. Although the play itself was thrilling to watch, the encounter is most remembered for Medvedev’s separate conflict with the Paris-Bercy crowd.
Connors says Medvedev’s on-court personality adds to match
After the crowd started shouting and booing the Russian player during the match, he yelled at them repeatedly to be quiet. However, this only made things worse and Medvedev eventually walked over to his bench and told the chair umpire that he would not continue playing until the crowd was silent.
Although things eventually calmed down, Medvedev was later accused of insulting the crowd by giving them the middle finger as he walked off the court, to which he replied by saying he was actually just looking at his nail.
On a recent episode of the Advantage Connors podcast, tennis legend Connors said that these on-court antics only added to Medvedev’s rising popularity and brought more fans to matches.
“I kind of like his personality. He gives you something more than just the hitting of the tennis ball, which certainly draws the fans in, like him or not. They’re going to come and watch him play and basically, you know, he put butts in the seats,” the 71-year-old said.
Connors also used Andy Murray as an example of an interesting on-court personality who engages fans by smashing his racket in anger.
“I saw a picture of Murray going to the sidelines and beating the cr*p out of his racket. What’s wrong with that? I don’t see what’s wrong with that either. I think that’s where times have changed. Now it’s ooh, persona non-grata to do things like that,” he continued.
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