Whatever was said, his words caused Asderaki-Moore to call up the supervisor during the next changeover and, after conferring, she returned to her chair and gave Medvedev a code violation. He would go on to win the first set but ultimately lose the match, as defending champion Alcaraz rallied for a 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory on Centre Court.
So what exactly did Medvedev say to the umpire? He dodged answering in a post-match press conference, and claimed that he “didn’t say anything too bad”—it was just “something in Russian”:
Q: In the first set where the umpire judged the ball wasn’t up on your side, what was your view of it? What did you say to her?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I don’t know if it was double bounce or not. I thought no. That was tricky.
The thing is that once long ago at Roland Garros against Cilic I lost, and she didn’t see that was one bounce. So I had this in my mind. I thought, again, against me.
I said something in Russian, not unpleasant, but not over the line. So I got a code for it.
Q: Was it the ‘small cat’?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would say ‘small cat’, the words are nice, but the meaning was not nice here. The meaning was better (smiling).
