Daniil Medvedev celebrated winning the US Open by reenacting a FIFA animation but chose one that would have had most people watching seriously worried for a moment or two.
Celebrating after scoring a goal, winning a point, or slamming a dunk (that's the correct terminology, right?) has been commonplace in sports for about as long as sport has existed. You can even celebrate in a video game based on a sport. Take FIFA, for example. After you've scored, there are any number of celebrations you can perform to make sure you really rub salt in the wounds of your opponent.
Most of the celebrations that can be used in FIFA are inspired by ones that have been used in real life. However, tennis player Daniil Medvedev switched up the formula this past weekend. Medvedev beat Novak Djokovic in the final of the US Open on Sunday. Rather than going for something traditional like a fist pump or dropping to his knees, Medvedev decided to pull for one of FIFA's more obscure celebrations.
Medvedev's celebration of choice was one commonly referred to as the dead fish. All you need to do is throw yourself to the floor and lie there. Since the US Open takes place on a hard court, the Grand Slam winner didn't throw himself down with quite the same vigor as football players do when performing the celebration on grass, or virtual grass.
Despite going down to the court a little slowly, some watching live might have been a little worried for Medvedev. Many watching won't have known what he was doing or might have even assumed he had collapsed. A fair assumption considering the grueling match he had just been through with Djokovic. Speaking of which, Medvedev's loss stops Djokovic's quest to win all four grand slams in the same calendar year.
Medvedev sort of explained his celebration to viewers a few moments later, although his explanation was just as niche as the celebration itself. “Only legends will understand what I did after the match is L2 + left,” he said. In case you don't know, that's the button combo you need to use on PlayStation to perform the dead fish after scoring a goal on FIFA. If you'd rather not see your opponents do that in FIFA 22, EA has revealed it has added a feature that will allow you to look at your own players rather than your celebrating opponents.