Russian fifth seed Daniil Medvedev trolled the New York crowd yet again as he booked his spot in the US Open quarterfinals with victory against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer.
Medvedev sealed his place in the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time by beating the unseeded Koepfer in four sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
But, just as he did following jeers during his third-round victory, the 23-year-old Russian used his post-match interview to rile the jeering New York crowd.
"I was painful in my abductor before the match. I thought I'm not going to play. I was painful in my shoulder. I took as much painkillers as I could,” the Russian said.
“And you guys, being against me, you gave me so much energy to win. Thank you.
"Guys, continue to give me this energy. You're the best," Medvedev added with boos ringing in his ears.
Medvedev faced Koepfer having engaged in a battle with the fans in New York during his fiery victory against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in the third round.
In that match, the Russian had been handed a code violation for snatching a towel from a ball boy before making a middle-finger gesture to the crowd, eliciting widespread jeering.
When that continued after the match, Medvedev sarcastically thanked fans for giving him “the energy to win.”
He was later slapped with a $9,000 fine by organizers over the incident with the ball boy and for his gesture to the crowd.
Also on rt.com Russia’s Medvedev fined after ball-boy antics, middle-finger gesture in fiesty US Open 3rd-round winWhile Germany’s Koepfer enjoyed more support on Sunday night, the crowd had been far less hostile to Medvedev until match point.
That changed quickly however when Medvedev danced his way over to the net on sealing victory, before raising his arms to the sky and making a ‘bring it on gesture’.
Medvedev later said he had merely “engaged a little bit with the crowd.”
"We all know how the New York crowd can be. It's probably the most electric crowd in the world, I think. Especially playing this week on big courts, I could feel it,” the Russian said.
“Today I was just engaging with the crowd and hopefully it was fun for them and for me. As I said, it gave me a lot of energy to win."
The Russian, who will next face Swiss star Stan Wawrinka in the last eight, said that his victory celebration had also not been directed at the crowd.
"I was just so happy about my win today that I just decided to do something special my first quarterfinal. Because I saw some comments already that some people think it was against the crowd. It was not at all. It was just showing how happy I was to be in the quarters."
Medvedev is a man in form, having reached three consecutive finals heading into the US Open, and claiming the Cincinnati Masters title on the eve of the tournament.
That propelled the 6ft 6in star to the lofty heights of world number five, and he has been tipped as the most likely candidate to challenge for the title at Flushing Meadows outside the ‘Big Three’ of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Also on rt.com US Open: Russia’s Medvedev can be the man to break Big Three’s Grand Slam strangleholdHis main concern at the moment may well be the pain he referred to in his post-match comments, and he was seen wearing strapping to his shoulder, arm and legs during the victory against Koepfer.
His next opponent is 2016 US Open winner Wawrinka, who beat defending champion Djokovic in their fourth-round game after the Serb retired injured while trailing by two sets and losing by two games to one in the third.
The New York crowd responded to the Serb’s decision to retire by booing him.