"Another $20k fine for Daniil Medvedev" - Fans shocked as Jannik Sinner's serve breaks the net days after Russian's Australian Open outburst

A thunderous Jannik Sinner serve shockingly caused the screw holding the net in place to come loose during the Italian's recent 2025 Australian Open clash against Holger Rune on Rod Laver Arena. Unsurprisingly, several fans delivered their reactions to the development soon after.

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner overcame apparent health issues in his fourth-round match against Holger Rune to continue his Australian Open title defense. However, early in the fourth and ultimately decisive set, Sinner broke the net with a powerful first serve. The match, which was marred by multiple interruptions, particularly due to the Italian's condition, once again came to a standstill as work began on fixing the net, which took 21 minutes.

Shocked tennis fans poured in with their reactions on X (formerly Twitter). Some hilariously blamed Daniil Medvedev for the problem, even though it was Jannik Sinner whose serve led to it.

Medvedev, who exited the 2025 Australian Open after a shock second-round loss to American teenager Learner Tien, repeatedly smashed his racket into the net in his first-round match, which broke a GoPro that was serving as the net camera.

Medvedev was later fined $10,000 for the offense, a part of the overall $76,000 penalty levied on him due to his on-court misconduct at the hardcourt Major.

"I've seen enough.. another 20k fine for Medvedev," a fan wrote.

"I blame Medvedev," commented another.

"It was Medvedev," another chimed in.

"Hypothesis: Medvedev destroys the net cam in 1R > weakens the screw's structural integrity > allows Sinner a recovery time in 4R > Rune out," yet another fan stated.

Here are some more reactions from fans to Sinner's serve breaking the net:

"I’ve never seen this happen at a pro tournament before. The net came out of the ground. This is gonna take a LONG time to fix," wrote one.

"Absolute Sinnema," one added in the form of a meme featuring the World No. 1.

In late 2023, former World No. 4 Greg Rusedski had lauded the evolution of Sinner's serve under the tutelage of veteran coach Darren Cahill.

"Jannik Sinner retooled the serve with Darren Cahill" - Greg Rusedski

Darren Cahill (L) and Jannik Sinner (R) (Source: Getty)

Darren Cahill, formerly the coach of Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep, joined Jannik Sinner's team in mid-2022. It didn't take long for the experienced Australian coach to have an impact on the Italian, as he helped him improve some of the weaknesses in his game. Eventually, by mid-2023, Sinner started looking more and more like the dominant force he is today.

Greg Rusedski, the 1997 US Open runner-up, told the official website of the ATP Tour in November 2023:

"He retooled the serve with Darren and that's something very, very difficult to do. I've been super impressed; the whole team has done a fantastic job with him. And it all started with making a change to the serve, the body, transitioning, adding slice and adding things."

Jannik Sinner announced recently that Darren Cahill would be retiring from coaching at the end of this season. The Italian's next on-court outing will see him take on home hope Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Australian Open.