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Ugo Humbert has defended the crowd at the Paris Masters after losing a tight three-set battle to Alexander Zverev. The Frenchman took to Centre Court a few hours after Daniil Medvedev appeared to give fans the middle finger after he was booed during his own defeat and sarcastically claimed that he was just checking his nails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was drama in Paris-Bercy on Wednesday when Medvedev refused to continue his match against Grigor Dimitrov while being booed by the crowd at 5-5 in the second set, ultimately resuming when he received a time violation. The world No 3 was heard telling the spectators to \u201cshut your mouth\u201d in French and when he walked off the court following his three-set loss, he appeared to give the crowd the middle finger sneakily.<\/p>\n
With clear sarcasm, he later laughed and demonstrated what he did in a post-match press conference. \u201cNo, I didn’t [show them the middle finger]. I just checked my nails, like this. No, really, it’s nothing more than that. Why would I do that to this beautiful crowd in Paris-Bercy?\u201d he grinned.<\/p>\n
The Russian also admitted that it wasn\u2019t his favourite tennis crowd, adding: \u201cAs for some tournaments, there are some tournaments to which I like to come back, and here, well, I have problems with the crowd. It happens.\u201d\u00a0But Humbert has defended the fans at his home tournament.<\/p>\n
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive tennis news<\/strong><\/p>\n Just in <\/strong> Alcaraz suffers from Paris Masters ‘curse’ and there might be two reasons for it[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n The 25-year-old faced 10th seed Zverev in a rollercoaster match later on Wednesday. He found himself a set and a break down with the German serving for the match before he managed to use the crowd\u2019s energy to break back, forcing a decider where he raced into the lead before ultimately losing.<\/p>\n After the match, Humbert was asked whether he could understand why some players might \u201chate\u201d the crowd with reference to Medvedev\u2019s gesture. But the Frenchman shut the suggestion down.\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/72\/590x\/secondary\/Medvedev-Paris-5045541.jpg?r=1698927358741\")
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