Former Australian tennis star Todd Woodbridge wants US Open officials to step in and stop players like Daniil Medvedev in a bid to crack down on time-wasting at this year’s tournament. Medvedev took a lengthy break after losing the first set to Alex de Minaur on Monday.
De Minaur was forced to wait on the court while his opponent was allowed to take his break unchallenged. Medvedev managed to rally back after his lengthy break to thrash De Minaur in the next three sets and progress to the quarter-finals.
But the Russian’s decision to leave the court at a crucial point of the match left Woodbridge seething in the commentary box, who feels tennis officials should be doing more to put a stop to it. “This is a strange situation in the match,” Woodbridge said on Australia’s Nine network.
“A 31-minute set, Medvedev leaves the court, took his whole bag… why do you need to leave the court for that long? It’s not a toilet break, is he changing full kit? Shouldn’t that be at a certain time?
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“I tell you, I think our sport really has to do something about these changeovers. It’s just such a crutch that everyone seems to go to when they’re down, and it’s just not part of the game. It shouldn’t be there, I implore our rules officials to get in and stop all this stuff going on, because it’s just momentum changes in matches that we shouldn’t have.
“Let’s keep the game moving. It’s not great for us as broadcasters, and I think it’s really gamesmanship and it needs to be taken out.” Medvedev wasn’t the only one in the match to get under Woodbridge’s skin for taking an unscheduled break.
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He added: “Just to be consistent, Alex is taking a break now… but this is going to add another six minutes, including the six-to-seven minutes we had (for Medvedev). So we’re now in a 15-minute break within a match that has only been played for two sets.
“What other sport in the world just walks off, and says to the fans ‘OK, you just sit and wait there, we’re going to walk off’… particularly when you’re sitting here in broadcast it makes no sense at all.”
Medvedev has also had a mixed relationship with the US Open crowd at this year’s tournament, getting in a shouting match with two spectators during his second-round win over Christopher O’Connell. The No 3 seed told them to “shut up” and added “are you stupid or what?” in a tense exchange.
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