Daniil Medvedev has had his fair share of rough days. He’s taken tough losses, had his moments of frustration, but a double bagel? That’s something even he didn’t see coming. So when Matteo Berrettini handed him a shocking 6-0, 6-0 defeat, the disbelief was written all over his face. And what followed was hard to ignore: a 40-second, unfiltered meltdown.

The former World No. 1 endured one of the toughest losses of his career in the Round of 32 at the Monte-Carlo Masters. The match lasted just 50 minutes, with Berrettini cruising through without much resistance. Medvedev’s frustration spilled over early in the second set, when he smashed his racket into the court 7 times until hs gear turned into debris.

And honestly, the numbers make it even harder to process. Medvedev managed to win just 17 points in the entire match. One of those days where absolutely nothing went right.

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Before Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev had never lost an ATP match without getting on the board. This time, he didn’t win a single game. From the very first point, things looked off, 23 unforced errors, missed chances, and before he knew it, the match was gone.

It’s not like the 30-year-old came into the tournament short on form. Daniil Medvedev had just taken down World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Open, reaching his third final there. On top of that, he already has two titles this season: the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Brisbane International.

But this brutal loss once again highlights his complicated relationship with clay. Despite being a 23-time ATP title winner, only one of those trophies has come on the surface, at the Italian Open in 2023. And it’s no secret either, Medvedev has never really shied away from admitting that clay isn’t exactly his favorite surface.

After his first-round exit at the Roland Garros in 2025, losing a five-set match to Cameron Norrie, he gave a blunt stance in the post-match press conference.

“Honestly, man. I might skip the clay season next year. F**k clay,” he said

This was not the first time he had threatened to abandon the surface entirely, but still he kept coming back and improved. The best result he recorded at the clay-court slam was the quarterfinal round in 2021, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. 

Wednesday at Monte Carlo felt like the worst moment of his career. The world No. 10 looked completely out of place from the first point itself and was always playing catch-up after that. There were no game points as well during the entire course of the match for the Russian, which pretty much sums up the story.

Daniil Medvedev and Monte Carlo: A history of frustration

The beautiful scenery of the Monte-Carlo arena somehow brings out the worst in Daniil Medvedev. His best result here remains his 2019 semifinal run, where he defeated both Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the last four. He had reached the quarterfinals again in 2023, which shows the capability of the Russian on the surface. 

An extreme boiling point had occurred in the 2024 edition, producing two separate meltdowns across consecutive days. In his second-round win over Gael Monfils, Medvedev lost his cool over a series of disputed line calls. He got angry at the chair umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, and even went on to hit the shade cover of his chair. After the win, he even signed the camera lens with the writing “In or Out???”

The following day, against his compatriot Karen Khachanov, he received a penalty point for throwing his racket into the wall, and finally bowed out of the tournament with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat. 

Unlike 2024, this time’s frustration was purely related to his performance in the match. Matteo Berrettini, who was the wild card player at this year’s Monte-Carlo, registered his first win over the Russian. They had met thrice before this encounter, with Medvedev winning all three of them on the hard court. 

Despite H2H being in Medvedev’s favor, Italian was always the favorite heading into the match on this surface. Berrettini has a win ratio of 71% on the red dirt, which is far superior to that of the Russian. 

This was the first match of the clay court season for the 2021 US Open champion, and his already hate relation with the surface would have increased after the defeat. We will have to wait and watch how he approaches the rest of the clay swing.