Daniil Medvedev has accused the French Open of preferring ‘Amazon to people’ as he criticised the decision to schedule his quarter-final match behind closed doors on Tuesday.
The world No.2 voiced his frustration about having to play without fans following his straight sets loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Billed as ‘the match of the day’ Medvedev’s encounter with the Greek was placed in the evening session slot which started at 9pm local time. However, due to the curfew currently in place fans were not allowed to attend. The Russian said he was ‘a hundred percent’ disappointed with the decision before taking a swipe at the organisers.
“Our match was definitely the match of the day, so Roland Garros preferred Amazon to people. It’s as easy as that,” he said.
Medvedev was making reference to a three-year deal which has been signed by Amazon. Their Prime video service has secured domestic rights to broadcast all of the evening sessions in France exclusively until 2023.
Continuing his criticism, the 25-year-old compared the current situation to an episode of Drive to Survive which he has been recently watching. The documentary series is a collaboration between Netflix and Formula One which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the sport.
“It’s actually funny because I started the third season and I think the first or second episode is called ‘Cash Is King’,” said Medvedev.
“When the pandemic started, they were in Australia ready to race and they asked Lewis Hamilton what he thought about racing in the conditions the world was in right now.
“He said ‘I don’t know what we are doing here’. So they asked him ‘Why do you think they make you race?’ He said ‘Cash is King’.
“It was the same here.”
Medvedev has also questioned what has happened to the money generated from the Amazon deal when prize money has been cut. The total prize money pool this year is €34,367,215 which is down -10.53% compared to 2020.
It is not the first time the French Open has been criticised over their night sessions with Victoria Azarenka raising concerns about gender equality. Only two women’s matches have taken place in the prime time slot compared to eight from the men’s draw. Tournament director Guy Forget said he wanted to put top players to play an evening session at some point for ‘sporting fairness.’ Although Medvedev has played at night twice.
In a recent interview with Tennis Majors, Forget confirmed that the French Federation are considering moving the time of the night sessions forward in the future.
