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Daniil Medvedev narrowly escaped being defaulted from his Wimbledon semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz after aiming abuse at umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore on Centre Court.

With the Russian No 5 seed serving at 5-3, 30-40, Alcaraz aimed a short forehand drop-shot cross-court, which Medvedev scrambled to reach. As he scooped his racket at the ball, Asderaki-Moore called “not up,” meaning that she believed the ball had bounced twice.

After staring at his box, Medvedev then issued a verbal volley in Asderaki-Moore’s direction. Speaking after the conclusion of the match, which Alcaraz won 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, Medvedev said, “I said something in Russian, not pleasant, but not over the line. So I got a code for it.”

When asked if he was concerned about being defaulted, he said “not at all because, as I say, I didn’t say anything too bad.”

He was also asked if he had said “small cat,” a line he infamously used about the umpire in his 2022 Australian Open semifinal against Stefanos Tsitsipas. He asked umpire Jaume Campistol to issue a code violation, and said, “if you don’t, you are a, how can I call it, a small cat.”

Today, he said, “I would say small cat, the words are nice, but the meaning was not nice here. The meaning was better.” Read more below.