Former world No 1 Andy Roddick has described Daniil Medvedev’s disqualification at the 2026 China Open as “straightforward and not dramatic.”
Medvedev was trailing 5-7, 3-5, 15-15 against Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals in Beijing on Monday when he was defaulted.
After a point, Medvedev hit a ball which bounced in front of him, and it struck a spectator — who was sitting in the front row of the crowd — in the face.
Following the match, Medvedev was apologetic and explained that the incident was a “100% accident.”
“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,” said the 2021 US Open champion.
The Russian added: “Yeah, I mean, 100% accident. 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 situation. So yeah, the most important, I hope that he’s okay ’cause you never know with these types of situations.”
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Speaking in a video shared on the social media accounts for his Served podcast, Roddick gave his reaction to Medvedev’s disqualification.
“My phone kind of started lighting up and it’s like: Medvedev defaulted. Sure, but this is about as straightforward and not dramatic, right… he goes over, he hits it in, he was wrong,” said the 2003 US Open winner.
“What do I say all the time? I don’t care if you break your own s***. I don’t care if you break a racket. Now, as soon as someone else comes into it, and you hit a fan, you’re gone, right?
“And for me, it’s not about like, I don’t like the thing where, even when Novak hit the person, it was, ‘oh, if it would have hit him in the shoulder, it would have been fine’. I’m like, I don’t know — the act is the act. If you hit someone, you’re gone. Let’s just make a clear-cut rule where it’s not like a judgment.
“To Lahyani’s credit, Medvedev hits the person, Lahyani comes down, has quick conversations, makes a decision. Meddy knows it’s coming, he’s not surprised by it. And he knows he put himself in position to get defaulted. And he took it.
“Meddy messed up. He deserved to be defaulted. He got defaulted. That’s that. Novak was winning this match anyways.”
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