After crashing out of the quarterfinals of the 2021 French Open, Daniil Medvedev took a harsh dig at the tournament’s organizers. The No.2 seed suffered a straight-set defeat at the hands of Stefanos Tsitsipas, in a match scheduled at night.

During the post-match conference, a reporter asked Medvedev whether he felt disappointed when he found his quarterfinal would be a night match without the crowd.

Mincing no words, Medvedev took a potshot at the French Open organizers and said they “preferred Amazon to people”. With the night sessions being played for the first time at the clay-court Grand Slam, Amazon holds the exclusive broadcasting rights in France for the night matches.

However, owing to the COVID-19 protocols, the fans cannot attend the night matches because of the 9 PM curfew time. Hence, the Russian tennis star feels money solely drove the decision of pushing his quarterfinal match against Tsitsipas to a night session, depriving fans of the key event.

“Our match was definitely the match of the day, so Roland Garros preferred Amazon to people. “It’s easy as that,” said Medvedev.

Daniil Medvedev slams French Open organizers

In fact, he gave an analogy from an episode in the ‘Drive to Survive’ documentary series about Formula One on Netflix, where someone asked Lewis Hamilton about his thoughts on racing amid a coronavirus outbreak in the paddock.

“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,” said Medvedev.

Taking a cue from Hamilton’s reply, Medvedev remarked the organizers applied the same principle when they scheduled his quarterfinal clash to a night session.

Continuing his tirade, Medvedev mentioned despite having Amazon and a higher crowd percentage as compared to last year, the players’ prize money has reduced by 15 percent.

Asking “where is the Amazon money?” Medvedev questioned the authorities about the usage of funds.

Before the start of the 2021 French Open, Medvedev has maintained an abysmal record of losing four consecutive first-round matches at the French Open since his debut in 2017.

This year, he kicked off his campaign on a winning note and reached the last eight, a performance that would certainly boost his morale considering his poor results on the red dirt in the past.