By Kevin Rademeyer, Sports Journalist.
Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour.
Daniil Medvedev suffered one of the most damaging defeats of his career at the Monte Carlo Masters, falling 6-0, 6-0 to Matteo Berrettini in a match overshadowed by a brief but explosive on court outburst.
The one sided contest, completed in under an hour, marked the first time Medvedev has lost a tour level match without winning a single game. It also placed Berrettini in rare company alongside Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer and David Goffin as only the fourth player in the ATP rankings era to record a double bagel victory over a top ten opponent.
Berrettini was clinical from the outset, weathering early pressure before dominating a visibly unsettled Medvedev, who landed just 36 per cent of his first serves and struggled to sustain rallies. The Italian wrapped up the opening set in just 25 minutes and maintained relentless intensity throughout.
“I think it was one of the best performances of my life,” Berrettini said. “I think I missed three shots in the entire match and it is not easy against a tricky player like Daniil. I think the game plan was perfect and my weapons were working. “I was not expecting to win zero, zero like that. But I kept my focus as I know one break or two breaks is not enough sometimes, so I kept pushing.”
The defining moment came early in the second set. After conceding another break to fall 2-0 behind, Medvedev’s frustrations boiled over in a 40 second meltdown. He smashed his racket seven times against the clay, throwing it repeatedly to the audible reaction of the crowd, before discarding the damaged frame in a courtside bin. The umpire issued a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. “It had been coming everybody,” a Sky Sports commentator remarked during the incident, before adding, “Yeah, I think that’s unusable.”
Former doubles world number one Jamie Murray described the episode as “shocking”, adding: “It shouldn’t happen… I think he will be pretty embarrassed walking into the locker room and will probably be wanting to get off site pretty quickly. “It was a big surprise to see him go down with two eggs, but fair play to Berrettini, that’s not an easy thing to do.”
Medvedev, who has long expressed discomfort on clay despite winning in Rome in 2023, later admitted he was unable to explain the scale of the collapse. “To be honest, basically it’s the same as every year, in training I wasn’t the best on clay, but I wasn’t losing 6-0!” he said. “I don’t really understand what happened. “I just couldn’t get a hold of anything, or even get a serve in.
“You can play aggressively, you can play defensively, but if you don’t hit the court at all, then no matter how you play, it won’t help.” Reflecting on whether to dissect the defeat, he added: “It’s one thing when you lose 6-3, 6-3, and you try to understand what you could have done better, but when you lose by such a score, then you could have done everything better.”
The defeat is a stark contrast to Medvedev’s otherwise strong start to the season, which included titles in Brisbane and Dubai and a run to the final at Indian Wells, where he lost narrowly to Jannik Sinner.
Sinner, meanwhile, continued his impressive form in Monte Carlo with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ugo Humbert. The Italian has now won 13 consecutive matches and matched a milestone last achieved by Federer in 2017, becoming the first player since the Swiss to win his opening 13 ATP Masters 1000 matches of a season. “I felt like it was a good performance today,” Sinner said. “The most difficult part is adapting to the movement on clay, but I’m very happy and the best practice is always matches.”
With Carlos Alcaraz also in contention at the top of the rankings, Sinner’s form adds further intrigue to the clay swing. For Medvedev, however, attention now turns to recovery and regrouping after a defeat that raises fresh doubts about his prospects on the surface.