Brendon McCullum believes Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev was planting the seed for failure and shouldn’t be coming “up with excuses” after his meltdown at the Tokyo Olympics.
Medvedev - ranked second in the world, was seen making an exchange with chair umpire Carlos Ramos after visibly battling to deal with the hot conditions at the Ariake Tennis Park on Wednesday.
Ramos asked him if he could continue to play, which prompted this response from the Russian.
“I can finish the match but I can die,” Medvedev replied.
“If I die, are you going to be responsible?”
Despite claiming he was struggling to breathe, Medvedev still found a way to get past Italian Fabio Fognini, walking away with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
McCullum believes there were some theatrics behind the outburst and that the heat was an excuse for poor performance.
“That’s way too full on,” McCullum told SENZ Breakfast.
“When it comes to the conditions, pollution’s not a problem there. You’re just talking genuine heat right.
“Medvedev is a supreme athlete, he would’ve been able to prepare himself accordingly for that.
“He would’ve been able to hydrate, have a lot of electrolytes going on. He would’ve had a good pre-match system in place and then post-match too.”
Israel Dagg was sceptical of the whole incident, claiming theatrics is accepted and normalised in tennis. He also wondered if Medvedev was planting the seed for failure.
“That’s what I’m taking out of it,” McCullum replied.
“Surely his mindset should be based on pushing forward, not trying to come up with excuses. To me, it looks like a little bit of an excuse.”
Medvedev is set to play Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta today for a spot in the semifinals. The pair last met a month ago in Mallorca, with the Russian winning in three sets.