Daniil Medvedev is through to his first Indian Wells semi-final, knocking over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the quarters despite battling through a thumb injury picked up midway through the second set.
With a break point at 3-3 in the second, the Russian appeared to slip as he changed directions and ended up spread-eagled across the court behind the baseline.
After getting up, he wandered back to his chair for a medical timeout to repair his injured nail.
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Medvedev has been a vocal critic of the Indian Wells surface throughout the tournament, complaining the hard court is too rough, and therefore too slow.
In his round of 16 match against Alexander Zverev, he injured his ankle and subsequently blew up over the playing conditions, labelling them a “freakin’ disgrace to the sport”.
“This freakin’ court, man. And they call it a hard court. What a shame to call this awful court, a hard court,” he said.
This latest fall will do little to quell his complaints of the surface.
“How bad is this court?” microphones caught him saying during the medical timeout.
“Wow. It’s too rough, players get injured, bravo.”
But the injury did little to stop his momentum. In the next game, he rattled off five straight points when down 0-40 to hold.
He eventually won the clash 6-3, 7-5.
In his post-game interview, Medvedev said he was struggling to walk and had relied on pain killers to play.
“I was not able to walk yesterday evening … it’s tough,” he said.
“I was walking in the pool just to try to walk anywhere because I couldn’t walk on the ground anymore.”
He then apologised to Davidovich Fokina for the “distraction” of the thumb injury, and said he’d never before had a cut as bad.
“When I have my tantrums on the court, I usually try never … distract my opponent,” he said.
“Here what I did for sure distracted Alejandro, because it’s deuce, but I absolutely cut it open.
“It was like fully open – I never cut myself with a knife even like this because I don’t cook much. Now it’s getting black, I don’t know if it’s a good sign.
“I don’t like to take medicals like this, but well I had to. Hopefully I can recover.”
He will face Frances Tiafoe in the semi-final on Sunday morning (AEDT).
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