Daniil Medvedev's rival explains why he wanted star to be defaulted at Laver Cup

Ben Shelton has explained why he thought Daniil Medvedev needed to be defaulted during their match at the Laver Cup.

The Russian threw his racket during the first set tiebreak but avoided a disqualification, instead receiving a warning.

Shelton's World team-mates argued that Medvedev should have been kicked out of the match. But the world No. 17 has a new perspective on the incident after watching a replay.

Medvedev sent a ball long while serving at 4-5 in the first set breaker to give Shelton a set point and threw his racket in frustration. It bounced up but avoided hitting someone sitting court-side.

The incident clearly threw Shelton off - he lost the next four points in a row to give the set away. And Team World wasn't happy. Captain John McEnroe appeared to be in conversation with chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani.

Tiafoe also thought Medvedev should have been defaulted and even went to speak to the supervisors during the second set. But Lahyani told him: "It bounced and it didn't hit anyone. The result was not bad. If it had hit someone, I agree with you."

Shelton has now addressed the controversial moment, admitting that he initially thought Medvedev had hit someone. Asked if he expected a disqualification, the 21-year-old replied: "No, I don't think so.

"So when he threw it first, and I saw the way the lady that it was going at reacted, I thought it was, like, right at her head, but Mohamed told me that the video showed that it was like four metres away."

The world No. 17 still didn't agree with Medvedev's actions. "So, I mean, you know, I wouldn't condone throwing a racket into the crowd. Obviously it was an accident. He was throwing it down into the court," he added.

"Lucky, lucky that it didn't hit somebody. But, yeah, I definitely didn't think that after he explained it to me that he should have been defaulted, but yeah, kind of a weird situation.

"I was a little bit out of sorts for, like, a couple of seconds after because I kind of looked up, and I just saw the racket fly into the first row."

Medvedev agreed with his opponent, admitting he got lucky that no one was hurt. "Yeah, I didn't want to throw it the way I threw it," he later said.

"I mean, I didn't want -- I wanted to throw it, like, on one place, so was horrible from me. I got lucky. I didn't touch anyone. When you don't touch anyone in tennis, you don't get a disqualification. So that's it. I got, yeah, should not do this."