The photographer, the argument with the chair umpire, the fifth-set collapse, the racket destroyed in front of a New York crowd that had turned against him: none of it returned on Sunday.

Medvedev, the seventh seed, walked off court at Flushing Meadows having beaten French qualifier Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes, his opening match of the 2026 US Open run through without incident.

“I felt like I did everything I wanted to do well. I finished the match strong,” he told reporters, in comments carried by AFP.

Louis Armstrong, twelve months earlier

On Sunday, August 24, 2025, Medvedev was on Louis Armstrong Stadium against Benjamin Bonzi when a photographer walked onto the court while the Frenchman was serving in the third set. Chair umpire Greg Allensworth cleared the intruder and awarded Bonzi another first serve. Medvedev objected, argued for several minutes, and the crowd took his side.

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He fought back to force a fifth set and lost it 6-4. Then he smashed his racket after the defeat, a five-set loss he would later say had cost him quite enough.

The bill from the tournament came to $42,500: $30,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $12,500 for racket abuse. Shortly afterwards, he split from his longtime coach Gilles Cervara, ending an eight-season partnership.

His verdict on that night, spoken to reporters at the time, was short.

“I’m getting big fine enough, so if I speak I’m in big trouble, so I’m not going to speak.”

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Medvedev breaks early, Gaston has no route back

Sunday’s match looked nothing like it. Medvedev broke Gaston early in the first set, held his own serve through the second, and never allowed the French qualifier’s drop-shot game a rhythm to build on. Once the pattern was set, Gaston had no route back.

Medvedev arrived in New York on a poor run. His last match before the US Open was a defeat by Martin Damm in Winston-Salem, during which he half-joked that he might switch to pickleball.

“I’m happy that today I managed to produce a high level of tennis,” he said afterwards.

“Last couple of weeks were not easy, but you know how it is, sometimes you lose matches, sometimes you win.”

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Medvedev’s second-round opponent will come from Sunday’s meeting between American wild card Sebastian Gorzny and Belgium’s Raphael Collignon.

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