Home » Tennis » “Looks like a hindrance to me” – Daniil Medvedev takes sly dig at chair umpire Aurelie Tourte

Daniil Medvedev will be in action against Brandon Nakashima in the first round of the Indian Wells Masters tomorrow – he recently took a sly dig at chair umpire Aurelie Tourte

Daniil Medvedev is gearing up for the Indian Wells Masters and he is scheduled to begin his campaign tomorrow, but the Russian did find some time to indulge in banter on social media. He took a dig at French chair Umpire Aurelie Tourte after she made an error during the 2023 BNP Paribas Open first-round match between Jaume Munar and Yibing Wu.

A footage of the incident was shared on Instagram by Tennis TV and Medvedev commented: “Looks like hindrance to me”, referring to another controversial incident involving himself and Tourte back in 2021.

During the match between Wu and Munar, the Chinese player stretched to his right to return the ball when Munar noticed that his opponent’s racquet had made contact with the net while the ball was still in play. The Spaniard desperately tried to point it out to Tourte, but the chair umpire refused to change her decision. The match eventually ended in favour of Wu with the Chinese star winning 6-7, 6-0, 7-6.

What happened between Aurelie Tourte and Daniil Medvedev back in 2021?

Aurelie Tourte and Daniil Medvedev were involved in a bizarre altercation over a judgement call in the 2021 National Bank Open. The incident occurred during a second-round match between Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Bublik at the 2021 National Bank Open in Toronto. Aurelie Tourte was in charge of the match as the chair umpire. In the third set, Tourte was forced to make a judgement call against Medvedev which infuriated the Russian player.

Daniil Medvedev (Image Credit: The Tennis Letter)

On Bublik’s serve, Medvedev chased down a drop-shot and followed it up with a lob. After Bublik retrieved it, Medvedev went for a powerful smash which hit Bublik right on his body which caused the Kazakh to lose balance and fall down. Medvedev immediately apologized and said ‘sorry’ in response to which chair umpire called ‘hindrance’ as Medvedev spoke in between the point. Medvedev and Bublik both had a hard time realising what exactly happened. Baffled by the call, Medvedev took a dig at the chair umpire, “Can you imagine how stupid this call is? Because I had the ball to hit. This is gonna be on tennis TV bro.”

More Tennis news

Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates