Tennis fans have recalled Daniil Medvedev's "villainous Slam run" at the 2019 US Open where he was booed during almost every match.

World No. 3 Medvedev made a name for himself four years ago. The Russian was coming into the US Open off the back of a wildly successful summer, reaching the final of the DC Open and the National Bank Canadian Open before winning the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Cininnati.

However, he found himself on the wrong side of the crowd at the last Grand Slam of the season after he angrily snatched a towel away from a ball boy. The incident occurred during his third-round match against Feliciano Lopez, who he defeated 7-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

The act incurred a lot of boos from the crowd and an unsportsmanlike conduct code violation. However, the drama didn't end there. Shortly afterward, Medvedev raised his middle finger to the crowd, although it was out of sight of officials.

Although Medvedev apologized for his actions, he also said that he planned to work with the negative energy that the crowd were hurling at him.

"I caused it," he said, "I’m not happy about it, but I have to deal with it, and I deal with it in my own way. The priority for me is to win the match, and if I have to win it by taking all the energy the crowd has, even if it’s against me, I have to do it. I’m there as a sportsman, and my first goal is to win the match."

This is exactly what he did in his fourth-round match at the Slam, ousting Dominik Koepfer to reach the quarter-finals. After he secured the win, Medvedev kept up his 'bad guy' act by dancing to the net under a cacophony of boos from the stands. 

Notably, it was what happened next that tennis fans have been remembering with amusement on the eve of this year's US Open.

During his on-court interview after the match, Medvedev goaded the angry crowd, telling them he couldn't have won it without their energy.

"Again, today I was losing, 6-3, 2-0. I was painful in my adductor before the match; I thought I’m not going to play. I was painful in my shoulder; I took as much painkillers as I could. You guys being against me, you gave me so much energy to win, thank you!" he declared, before mockingly raising his arms to encourage more boos to fall upon him.

This weekend, a fan posted a clip of the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption:

"It's been 4 years and this is still the best tennis post-match interview ever."

Medvedev will face Attila Balázs in the first round of the 2023 US Open.