Taylor Fritz had takes on the photographer who interrupted Daniil Medvedev and Benjamin Bonzi

NEW YORK—For the past 14 days, Taylor Fritz didn’t post or reply on X.

Leave it to Daniil Medvedev to rouse the American from his social-media slumber.

The rambunctious Russian was the talk of the town as Day 1 of the US Open stretched from late Sunday into early Monday. For a while, it didn’t appear that his matchup with 51^st-ranked Benjamin Bonzi would be noteworthy beyond Medvedev’s continued struggles at the Slams. He entered the tournament having lost his last three matches at the Slams; after winning 18 matches at the majors in 2024, the former No. 1 has just one this season.

“I'm playing bad and in important moments, even worse,” said Medvedev. “Everything. Everything. Serve, return, volley, whatever. Just need to play better, and I'm going to try to do it next year.”

Then someone came onto the court—during match point.

As Bonzi prepared to hit a second serve at 6-3, 7-5, 5-4, a photographer walked onto the playing surface, erroneously thinking the match was over. When chair umpire Greg Allensworth commanded him, “Not now, get off the court please!”, he then announced that Bonzi would receive a first serve.

Cue Medvedev.

What ensued was a viral moment Medvedev has become known for: making his voice heard, loud and clear. He berated Allensworth for the decision, saying, “He wants to go home guys, he doesn't like to be here, he gets paid by the match, not by the hour.” Medvedev then mentioned Reilly Opelka, who at this year’s Dallas Open called Allensworth the “worst ump on tour.”

“Delay from the photographer was probably four seconds and a half,” Medvedev would later say. “I’m not sure it's enough for a second serve.”

Combined with a cascade of boos from the crowd inside Louis Armstrong Stadium, some six minutes passed before Bonzi struck his (second) first serve.

“Ya he should get a first [serve],” Fritz wrote in reply to the X account @whinerali, “but the call ends up backfiring and hurting him because of the pause, having to sit on a match point for 10 min and then the crowd getting super into it against you.

“Unless bonzi hits a huge first serve and gets a free point off the pause, then the whole thing is actually really bad for him”

Fritz, who occasionally engages with followers during buzzworthy tennis moments, elaborated further:

It appeared Fritz’s feeling would would be fact: Bonzi lost the match point, and then the third set in a tiebreak. His play immediately cratered as Medvedev ran away with the fourth set, 6-0. When he fell behind 0-40 at 3-3 in the fifth, Bonzi’s Cinderella story appeared over—it was after midnight, after all.

But he would go on to save all three break points, then two more before holding serve—and ultimately win the match.

“I’m very proud of myself, the scenario of the match, the match point in the third,” said Bonzi. “Then Daniil playing great and taking, like, full advantage on the fourth. I was not in my best physically in the fifth. I tried to fought very hard to give all I had. I saw that he was not maybe at his best too.

“Yeah, it's kind of crazy, this match. For me it's like my best victory ever. It's very special to do it here.”

Medvedev’s antics weren’t over with after the match point fiasco. He seemed to purposely delay play by shaking one hand before serving late in the fifth set, and he destroyed his racquet after repeatedly whacking it on his bench after the match was over.

But after Bonzi converted his second match point—with a backhand pass Medvedev couldn’t get back—both men shook each others’ hands, along with Allensworth’s.

“What I say and what I do, in my head, I want to do worse, and I cannot because there are rules, because we're on tennis court,” said Medvedev. “So I just expressed my emotions, my unhappiness with the decision, and then the crowd did what they did without me asking them too much, and it was fun to witness.”