Australian Open: Daniil Medvedev vents frustration on net camera
What's the story
Fifth seed Daniil Medvedev narrowly avoided a shock defeat against world number 418, Kasidit Samrej, at the 2025 Australian Open.
Medvedev, who won in five sets, fell behind in the third. This pushed him to smash his racket into the net camera.
The outburst came as he faced the prospect of being eliminated by Samrej, who was on the verge of his career's biggest win.
Medvedev eventually won 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Underdog story
Samrej's remarkable journey to Australian Open
Samrej, a Thai wildcard, had never played at an ATP event or faced anyone ranked higher than 78th before this match.
His path to the Australian Open included winning four wild-card playoff rounds for the Asia-Pacific region in November.
Despite his inexperience on such a grand stage, Samrej took a two-sets-to-one lead against Medvedev in their best-of-five match.
Match turnaround
Medvedev bounces back to beat Samrej
Despite the pressure, Medvedev composed himself and won the match 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. This was his fourth consecutive five-set match in Melbourne.
During an on-court interview after the game, Medvedev jokingly said: "I know that I play better when I play more tennis, so why play one hour 30 [minutes]? It's minimum three hours to feel my shots better and to have a good sensation."
Incident details
Emotional outburst and warning
Medvedev's frustration was apparent in the second set when he started shouting at his coach.
His emotions reached a crescendo in the third set when an unfortunate net point went against him, resulting in his racket smashing incident.
The camera was badly damaged, with its visual feed cutting out immediately and a ball kid having to clean up the broken pieces.
After this incident, Medvedev was warned by the chair umpire.
Post-match thoughts
Medvedev's post-match reflections
Reflecting on his performance, Medvedev admitted: "Second and third set, I couldn't touch the ball. Full power, everything in, I didn't know what to do."
He also expressed surprise at Samrej's skill level during their match.
Notably, Medvedev is a three-time Australian Open finalist. He is yet to win the year's first Grand Slam in nine attempts.