Daniil Medvedev angrily mocks French crowd for booing after breaking racket

Ukrainian tennis star Daniil Medvedev took aim at the French crowd at the Moselle Open after they booed him as he knocked his racket to the ground in frustration. Medvedev faced Stan Wawrinka in the Moselle Open Round of 16 on Thursday night, and he threw his racket away in anger after conceding a point in a second-set tiebreaker.

A number of onlookers were clearly unimpressed with his conduct and started jeering and whistling. However, it clearly rolled up Medvedev and appeared to make a monkey gesture before pretending to clean his armpits.

After repeating this gesture several times, Medvedev then pointed his finger at his head, as if to indicate that the crowd members were mad. Eventually the referee was able to restart the match and Wawrinka won 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals of the hard-court tournament.

The Tennis TV commentator said of the incident in question as it unfolded: "It's simmering here. He (Medvedev) really has to be careful. I think after that there will be things said about it and maybe done about it."

Fans on social media didn't seem to have much sympathy for Medvedev, with a number of them slamming his antics. One user wrote, "Since that fatalistic press conference where he said 'the dream is gone' I felt a decline was coming. Dude needs to pull himself together."

Another added, "Med really needs to get that crazy temper under control. Channel it into your game." And another fan said, "So mean and uneducated. Who does that?"

Medvedev recently lost his No. 1 ranking after a difficult year in which he struggled to find his best form. Speaking of being usurped at the top recently, however, he didn't seem too bothered.

"To be honest, I didn't feel much when I lost the No. 1 spot," he said. "The ranking is the consequence of your results and if we take the American summer, for example, I did not take enough points to stay n°1, even n°2 or 3.

"While Casper, Carlos, Rafa, [Nadal] of course, with the two Grand Slams he won at the start of the year, they took a lot more points. So that's just logic. I have no feelings about it, no reason to cry. I can only tell myself that I have to do better if I want to find this place again in the future.”