Daniil Medvedev blasts 'low IQ' Australian Open crowd after win vs. Nick Kyrgios
Daniil Medvedev advanced to the third round of the Australian Open by beating Nick Kyrgios (7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2) on Thursday, but the Russian tennis star wasn't in the mood for celebrating. Instead, he vented about the crowd that vocally supported the hometown Kyrgios throughout the match.
Part of the issue seemed to be that Medvedev misinterpreted the crowd's cheers of "Siu" — a celebration made popular by soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo — as boos. When interviewer Jim Courier tried to clear up the miscommunication for Medvedev, he struggled to hear the explanation over the crowd.
"Show some respect for Jim Courier," Medvedev said to the crowd. "Let him speak, please. If you respect somebody, at least respect Jim Courier."
In a later interview with Eurosport, Medvedev went a step further, saying "those who are doing [the cheer] probably have a low IQ."
A couple days earlier, Kyrgios beat Liam Broady in the first round and also commented on the prevalent "Siu" chant that happened throughout his match.
“It’s just a stupid, I can’t believe they did it so much," Kyrgios said, via The Guardian. "They were doing some Ronaldo thing. Ronaldo does it every time he scores. It’s like – I thought they were going to do it for like 10 minutes. They did it for two-and-a-half hours, like every point."
Medvedev is the top-seeded men's singles player in the Australian Open after the deportation of Novak Djokovic. He'll play Botic van de Zandschulp in the third round.
More must-reads: