Fritz on Medvedev's behaviour: "I was laughing between points".
Winner of Daniil Medvedev's first match in the Nastase group, Taylor Fritz spoke of the Russian's attitude, which scuttled from the second set onwards.
After a disputed first set, the American had no trouble in the second to win his first match in this 2024 edition of the Masters.
In his post-match press conference, he described his reaction to the show put on by his opponent: "Honestly, I find him funny. Even when I'm not playing him, he always makes me laugh. When he'd throw his racket in the air, I'd laugh between points. He's like that."
But Fritz remained wary of the Russian's attitude: "When he played with his racket upside down, at 40-0, he still put the ball in the court. I had to tell myself to concentrate. Sometimes, when you see that your opponents are barely trying to play, it can throw you off.
If I didn't serve well at 5-3, he wasn't going to give me the match. Luckily for me, I had a solid service game, so I didn't give him a chance to play."
Shanghai 
As a laboratory for tomorrow’s tennis, does the Next Gen Masters have a future? 
Tennis: the little-known truths about the offseason, between rest, stress and physical survival 
What if tennis lost its soul? The case of robotized officiating, between tradition and a dehumanized modernity 
Features - Saudi Arabia, injuries, war, and business: the fascinating underbelly of tennis revealed by TennisTemple 