Daniil Medvedev riles up New York crowd for second straight time

Daniil Medvedev says he wants to improve his on-court behavior but riled up the Armstrong stadium crowds for the second time in a row, performing a victory dance that drew boos from the stands.

Medvedev reached the quarterfinals with a four-set win against Dominik Koepfer, then produced the jubilant dance gestures before shaking hands with his opponent. During his courtside interview, he sarcastically thanked the crowd, saying their cheering against him helped him to win despite his physical problems.

The Russian gave a similar speech to the crowd following his third-round win against Feliciano Lopez, when he drew a warning from the umpire for snatching a towel from a ballkid and then gave the crowd an obscene gesture for booing him.

Medvedev acknowledged he had behaved poorly in his third-round appearance, saying, "I was an idiot, to be honest. I did some things that I'm not proud of and that I'm working on to be a better person on the court because I do think I'm a good person [off] the court."

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But he said his interaction with the crowd following his fourth-round win had just been intended to be entertaining. "Talking about today, I think, I mean, I was just, during my match I was completely focused," he said. "After the match, I engaged a little bit with the crowd. But we all know how New York crowd can be. It's probably the most electric crowd in the world, I think. Especially, I mean, playing this week on big courts, I could feel it. Today I was just engaging with the crowd."

Though he told the crowd on court that he had found the energy to come from a set and a break down because they were rooting against him, Medvedev denied his dance had been to provoke the crowd.

"Usually, as you can see, I'm not that emotional after my wins," he said. "I like to watch other people's emotions more than show mine. That's the way I am. Talking about the dance, 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.

"I was a little bit surprised, because as I say, it was not against them. It was something with myself."

The No. 5, who noted that he has used hostile crowds in his favor before, has reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal—his goal before the tournament.

Medvedev next plays Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.

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