Daniil Medvedev kicked off his campaign at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters in dominating fashion. However, his second-round match was no short of drama, as the Russian got into a heated argument with the chair umpire.

Medvedev is the No. 4 seed at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament and faced off against Gael Monfils in the second round, having received a first-round bye. The Russian played a near-perfect game to oust the Frenchman 6-2, 6-4 from the tournament in one hour and 29 minutes.

During the fourth game of the second set, controversy erupted as Daniil Medvedev argued with chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani over a disputed line call. Medvedev was serving at 30-0, and the linesman called a shot from Monfils out. Lahyani overruled the call after inspecting the mark. However, a Hawk-eye replay showed that the shot was indeed out.

At the next point, Monfils’ shot was called in despite landing out. Lahyani again intervened and sided with Medvedev to award him the point. During the changeover, Medvedev went into a profanity-laced tirade against Lahyani over the disputed calls. He also took out his anger on the parasol over his bench.

You can watch the entire incident below:

The altercation went viral on social media, with fans dubbing it the most Daniil Medvedev-esque moment of the clay court season so far. Many found the incident funny and enjoyed the former World No. 1’s outburst.

“This sorta’ behaviour from Daniil Medvedev is childish and immature and ridiculous and I absolutely f*cking love it,” a fan wrote.

“Clay court meddy is pure entertainment,” reacted another fan.

“Lmfaooooooo clay season has barely begun and miss girly is already in full drama queen mode,” a fan quipped.

Some fans stated the Russian would use this frustration as motivation and might even pick up a few titles during the clay swing.

A fan tweeted, “He’s extra pissy and we’re only at the first clay tournament I am now 100% he’s winning Roland Garros.”

“Claydvedev is back He doesn’t want to play on this sssssurface leave him be,” said another fan.

However, other fans did not find Medvedev’s outburst amusing and wondered why such behavior from the former US Open champion had gone unpunished. A fan also pointed out that Lahyani has always been a controversial umpire and often finds himself in the middle of on-court verbal spars.

“How can people be allowed to play (and earn millions) when behaving like this? It would be unacceptable in any other working environment,” a fan wrote.

“This man child isn’t even remotely funny and his antics are worse than his tennis. For how long we will allow this vandalism to go unchecked?” another fan said.

“You will always find Lahyani at the crime scene cos he is the crîminal . So many controversies whenever he is on court,” a fan opined.

Daniil Medvedev to face Karen Khachanov in Monte-Carlo Masters 3R

Daniil Medvedev will continue his campaign at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters on April 11, when he will face compatriot Karen Khachanov in the third round. Khachanov is the No. 15 seed and has defeated Cameron Norrie and Francisco Cerundolo in the previous two rounds.

This will be the sixth ATP Tour meeting between Medvedev and Khachanov and the former has a comprehensive 5-1 head-to-head advantage. They faced each other thrice last year, and the World No. 4 won all three contests. Khachanov’s lone victory came way back in 2018.

Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov have already competed against each other at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters, as both men played doubles at the ATP 1000 tournament. Khachanov patterned with Andrey Rublev and defeated Medvedev and Roman Safiullin 7-6(1), 6-2 in an all-Russian affair.