Daniil Medvedev was disqualified and stripped of ranking points before ATP Finals comeback
Daniil Medvedev is back at the ATP Finals after missing out on a place in Turin last year. The eight players who earn the most ranking points in a single season get to battle it out at the year-end championships, but Medvedev couldn’t make the cut in 2025. And he found himself in a tough position again this year when he was stripped of the 200 ranking points he earned at the China Open in Beijing, as he was disqualified in the semi-finals. Novak Djokovic was serving for the match when Medvedev hit a ball away with his racket. It wasn’t in frustration, but the ball made contact with a spectator in the front row, and Medvedev was defaulted. He has since apologised both publicly and privately.
When a player is defaulted, they lose their points and prize money from that tournament, though this can be appealed. It was a setback in Medvedev’s quest to return to the ATP Finals, and he knew he would have qualified much sooner, had he not lost those points. Still, the Russian has enjoyed a strong end to the season and managed to secure his place in Turin, also returning to the world’s top five for the first time since January 2025.
Still, Medvedev knew that the disqualification in Beijing would be something of an obstacle in the Race to Turin. Speaking days later at the Shanghai Masters, he said: “Look, it’s all about results. If I played strong in Canada, quarters of, and continued my results here, and didn’t lose 200 points somewhere last week, I would probably be officially qualified.”
The former world No. 1 also seems to have appealed the default, though he still has zero points for the China Open, according to the ATP website. Addressing the incident last month, Medvedev explained: “I think you can see a lot of videos where I’m frustrated, and you can see that this one was probably not one of them. If you look at some other videos, I’ve been more frustrated in my life than this one.
The ball came back to me so I just had a reflex to kind of, you know, I lost the point, I wanted to get rid of the ball, and definitely didn’t want to hit anyone, so really unlucky. I’m really grateful that’s okay, because that’s, you know, the most important.
“The rest is, how you call it, bureaucracy, I don’t know if you have this word in English, but I’m glad that the guy’s okay. About the appeal? I don’t know if I can comment. You know, like when the case is ongoing, I don’t know, so I have no idea. Whenever it’s finished I will comment.”
While Medvedev still seems to be awaiting a decision on any appeal, he has more than put the unfortunate incident behind him. The Russian successfully defended a title for the very first time in his career at the recent Almaty Open. He also reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and the Vienna Open, helping him qualify for the ATP Finals.
A former champion of the year-end event, Medvedev is the No. 4 seed and has been drawn in the Ivan Lendl Group. He will face Carlos Alcaraz, Flavio Cobolli, and Frances Tiafoe in his round-robin matches. The two group winners from each side advance to the knockout semi-finals.
