Daniil Medvedev explains China Open disqualification: “It was 100% an accident”

Daniil Medvedev was disqualified from his ATP 500 match against Novak Djokovic in Beijing after hitting a spectator with a ball.

A day later, the Russian tennis player apologised.

“I’m genuinely very sorry for him and I just hope he is okay. That is the most important thing. As for everything else, we move on. At the moment, the only thing I care about is him. I hope I can meet him and somehow make it up to him,” Daniil Medvedev said.

Medvedev tried to explain how the incident happened.

“It was 100% an accident,” Daniil stressed. “You can see that I didn’t hit the ball out of anger… I do a lot of wrong things on court, but this kind of shot is usually not one of them. The ball was bouncing back and I simply tried to direct it somewhere so that it wouldn’t go out of the court. When I saw what happened, I felt terrible because, as I said, I don’t think I have ever even come close to a situation like this. The most important thing is that he is okay, because with incidents like this you never know.”

Medvedev also praised Djokovic, who reached the final and is now one win away from his 102nd ATP title.

“It was a tough match for me. He played really well. I felt that he was playing like he does when we have our best matches. I had some chances that I missed. He performed incredibly well, so I think he has a great chance in the final,” the Russian said.