Australian Open winner Rafael Nadal is confident that Daniil Medvedev will earn great crowd support in the future.
The Nadal vs Medvedev final was a thrilling affair that went to the last set. However, it had a clear favourite and a clear villain, with the crowd firmly behind Nadal and booing Medvedev’s every move.
The heckling eventually got to the Russian, who squandered a two-set lead to end up losing the match and the trophy to his opponent. He was visibly upset after being treated disrespectfully, and let the crowd know it.
However, Nadal is confident that Medvedev will earn some great crowd support in the future, saying he has the rest of his career to do it.
“The crowd was supporting me crazy yesterday,” the 21-time Grand Slam winner said, as quoted by Yahoo Sports.
“I know when the emotions are high and you play these kinds of matches, of course there is always things that can’t be perfect out there, no?
“The emotions are too high to have 100 per cent self-control for I don’t know how many people, 15,000 people.”
Deserved praise
“Of course there are always mistakes, but Daniil (handled) it well,” the Spaniard continued.
“He’s a great champion and he will enjoy the crowd on his favour in the future, I don’t have any doubt. He’s a good person and in some way I felt sorry that he felt like this after the match.
“I think that feeling is something that happened in that moment because it’s tough like this with all the crowd almost supporting your opponent. But I assure that he has plenty of time to enjoy amazing crowds in his favour here in Australia and around the world and he will experience this amazing feeling,” he concluded.
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