On the evidence of this year and last, tennis fans can pull out their 2027 diaries, flick through to late August and pencil in “Daniil Medvedev gets weird.”

One year on from his memorable, quotable and entirely indefensible meltdown in the first round of the U.S. Open, Medvedev, the 2021 champion in New York, used a changeover at a tuneup in Winston-Salem, N.C. to meditate on his career options and the nature of sports.

“Maybe I should start a career in pickleball,” Medvedev, the top seed at the Winston-Salem Open after taking a wild card, mused during a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to 22-year-old American Martin Damm.

“Not too late. Doubles … With Jack Sock,” he said, referring to the former pro who moved into pickleball after retiring from tennis and has won eight titles on the circuit. Sock, 33, also won four Grand Slam doubles titles in tennis and Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Medvedev was not done with his exploration of sporting possibility.

“Every sport on this planet is better, man,” he said, turning to the chair umpire.

“Even curling right now.” What a way to catch a stray.

Medvedev, 30, is having the kind of season that might drive a player toward existential musings — even before considering the fact that he is predisposed to them like few sports stars are. After a dismal first nine months of 2025, he split with longtime coach Gilles Cervara, and hired Thomas Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion.

The switch appeared to revitalize Medvedev, who showed signs of life toward the end of the year and started 2026 with a title at the Brisbane International. After their partnership ended, Cervara had used a Medvedevian image to explain why the eight-year relationship, which saw Medvedev win that U.S. Open title and reach world No. 1, had to end. In an interview with Tennis Majors, he said:

“The team around a player is like an engine—a complex machine that drives forward. When it runs at full power, you go fast. At some point the engine stops, but you don’t see it because the boat continues gliding. After a while, that energy is gone, and you’re stuck mid-sea, trying to restart that engine.”

Medvedev’s engine appeared fully restarted by spring, when he reached the final of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, defeating Carlos Alcaraz along the way with a stunning display of hyper-aggressive tennis. In that final, he took a juggernaut-like Jannik Sinner to two tiebreaks.

Since then, things have been less consistent. He reached the Italian Open quarterfinals, but only after being double-bageled 6-0, 6-0 by Matteo Berrettini at the Monte Carlo Masters, and only before losing in the first round of the French Open to Australian wild card Adam Walton. Medvedev split with Johansson this summer, and is working with Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev for the U.S. hard-court swing.

He will arrive in New York — on the back of his latest journey into the surreal — for the one-year anniversary of one of his most evocative but also most concerning displays. Medvedev is one of the great talkers on the ATP Tour, a considered and cerebral news conference subject and interviewee who will speak his mind and provide genuine insight into what elite tennis players think about, from their opponents, to their own games, to — especially in Medvedev’s case — the quality of tennis balls.

His turn of phrase, from the immortal “you better shut your f––– up, OK?” to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2018 Miami Open, to “who are they? Illuminati?” when discussing roof closures at the 2024 Madrid Open, can be sparkling.

But he can also spiral from absurdity into petulance, anger and outright bad sportsmanship. So it was at the 2025 U.S. Open, when a photographer walked onto the court during Medvedev’s first-round match against Benjamin Bonzi of France. Bonzi was serving for a straight-sets win, and the photographer made his move between his first and second serve.

Chair umpire Greg Allensworth ruled that he would get another first serve, and Medvedev went ballistic. While his outburst had some of his typical vaudeville — “what did Reilly Opelka say?” remains the great unanswered question in tennis — he also incited the crowd to boo and delayed Bonzi’s attempt to win the match by six minutes, and claimed that Allensworth wanted to leave because he got “paid by the hour.”

When the match resumed, Medvedev broke Bonzi’s serve and won the next two sets, but ultimately lost the match in five.

“They did the work. I didn’t do anything,” Medvedev said in his news conference. “The crowd did what they did without me asking them too much, and it was fun to witness.”

“Daniil started it. He put oil on the fire,” Bonzi said in his news conference.

Medvedev was fined $42,500 for the incident. He will receive no such sanction for his journey into the twilight zone in Winston-Salem, but he will return to New York once again inhabiting his role as the sport’s compelling, at-times unforgivable anti-hero.

The Detroit Tigers host the Tampa Bay Rays at 1:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with both teams hoping to win the series. Troy Melton (7-2, 1.60 ERA) gets the start for the Tigers, who are 62-70 this season and fourth in the AL Central. Freddy Peralta (5-11, 5.33 ERA) is expected to start for the Rays, who are 78-54 and first in the AL East.

How to watch Tampa Bay Rays vs. Detroit Tigers

Rays vs. Tigers odds

• Favorite Moneyline: Tigers -125
• Underdog Moneyline: Rays +105
• Total: 8
• Total Over Odds: -105
• Total Under Odds: -115

Injury reports

Tigers

Riley Greene: 10 Day IL (Hamstring), Kerry Carpenter: 10 Day IL (Heel), Matt Vierling: 10 Day IL (Adductor), Jack Flaherty: 15 Day IL (Flexor), Trey Sweeney: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Bailey Horn: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Parker Meadows: 60 Day IL (Head/arm), Burch Smith: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Reese Olson: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Will Vest: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Wenceel Perez: 60 Day IL (Face), Brant Hurter: 60 Day IL (Back), Justin Verlander: 60 Day IL (Hip)

Rays

Ben Williamson: 10 Day IL (Hamstring), Victor Mesa Jr.: 10 Day IL (Hamstring), Cole Sulser: 15 Day IL (Back), Griffin Jax: 15 Day IL (Elbow), Jake Fraley: 60 Day IL (Groin), Ryan Pepiot: 60 Day IL (Hip), Gavin Lux: 60 Day IL (Shoulder), Jon Heasley: 60 Day IL (Elbow), Edwin Uceta: 60 Day IL (Shoulder)

Stats to know

• Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle has hit 14 home runs this season. He has also tallied 56 RBIs and has scored 84 runs. In 577 plate appearances, he has recorded a .280 BA, .381 OBP and .427 SLG with a 13.7% walk rate and a 13.7% strikeout rate. He has been effective on the base paths, recording 12 steals on 13 attempts.
• In 517 plate appearances, Dillon Dingler has hit 26 long balls (20th in MLB), tallied 82 RBIs (10th in MLB) and scored 65 runs. He is batting .253/.318/.481 and has posted a 22.2% strikeout rate and a 6% walk rate.
• Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero is slashing .278/.365/.531 this season with 35 home runs (4th in MLB), 84 RBIs (8th in MLB) and an OPS of .896 (6th in MLB). He has an 18.3% strikeout rate and an 11.8% walk rate in 575 plate appearances, and he has scored 81 total runs.
• In 564 plate appearances, Yandy Diaz has slashed .303/.372/.463 this season. He has hit 19 long balls and driven in 72 runs with a strikeout rate of 14% and a walk rate of 8.5%. and has scored 76 runs.

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