Daniil Medvedev becomes latest player to call out umpire Fergus Murphy on time violations

Time violations have become a topic of discussion in the wake of one issued to Carlos Alcaraz at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open last month.

“I’m not allowed to go to the towel?” an incredulous Alcaraz asked after winning a lengthy rally against Karen Khachanov.

While a shot-clock is meant to ensure players do not exceed 25 seconds between points, it is up to the discretion of the chair umpire on when exactly the clock ought to start once a point has ended.

It was gold medal umpire Marija Cicak who drew Alcaraz’s ire in Doha, but both Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev tagged Cicak’s colleague Fergus Murphy as the most consistently quick to start the clock—and therefore issue more time violations than average.

“I always had an issue with specifically Fergus starting the clock super fast,” Fritz said earlier in the week. “And I'd never got called for time violations and no one ever got called for time violations against me, but then there was probably 10 in total in my matches when he was in the chair, and then it started just being automatic, like when the point ends, it just starts. It's not really up to the umpire.”

Medvedev was the latest to chime in on the debate after reaching the BNP Paribas Open quarterfinal on Wednesday, breaking down the issue in his inimitable style:

Q. Do you think some umpires [use the shot clock] differently to others?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think so. I think Fergus gave me two or three times in my life a time violation and I always went nuts.

Because sometimes you play Rafa, you play, I don't know, Sascha takes, Novak takes some time to prepare for serve. And of course you play them sometimes with a different umpire. But I would love to see Fergus -- I cannot play Rafa anymore, but if he would make, like, 10 times time violation to Rafa, because you need to have some common sense sometimes, which maybe you should.

I think also what would work great is to advertise a player, meaning, you know, not give only me, everyone, you first advertise, meaning on the changeover, you say, look, there was one or two times you were getting really close, next time it's going to be a time violation.

And not like Fergus gave me, I remember this in Vienna, I went absolutely nuts and lost the match because of it, on the tiebreak, where I played like crazy two points with Moutet, I didn't even go for the towel, something, and he gave me time violation. And this I don't accept still.

Yeah, I think there is a difference.

Medvedev was playing a match against Stefanos Tsitsipas back in 2024 when Murphy issued the latter a time violation—causing Tsitsipas to melt down in response.

“Why are you doing this to me, man?” Tsitsipas said at the time.

Medvedev went on to win that match, played at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, in straight sets.

Over in Tennis Paradise, Medvedev had no complaints after easing into the last eight, knocking out American Alex Michelsen, 6-2, 6-4. The No. 11 seed will next face either No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic or defending Indian Wells champion Jack Draper.