Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge has laid into Daniil Medvedev for his “gamesmanship”, after the Russian ended Alex de Minaur’s US Open run on Tuesday.

De Minaur played some inspired attacking tennis early to raise hopes of an upset win before the third-seeded 2021 Open champion powered to a 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 triumph.

But it was Medvedev’s departure from the court after he lost the first set of his fourth-round US Open match to the Australian. Medvedev earlier took a break between games and was given an inhaler by medical staff.

After he left court for a lengthy period, Australia’s world No.13 was left waiting, and Woodbridge began fuming in the commentary box.

“This is a strange situation in the match,” he said.

“A 31-minute set, Medvedev leaves the court, took his whole bag … why do you need to leave the court for that long?

“It’s not a toilet break, is he changing full kit? Shouldn’t that be at a certain time?”

Woodbridge urged tennis authorities to act on the lengthy changeovers.

“It’s just such a crutch that everyone seems to go to when they’re down, and it’s just not part of the game,” he said.

“I implore our rules officials to get in and stop all this stuff going on, because it’s just [the] momentum changes in matches that we shouldn’t have.

“Let’s keep the game moving. It’s not great for us as broadcasters, and I think it’s really gamesmanship and it needs to be taken out.”

Medvedev also took another long break after winning the first game of the second set. This time he stayed on court.

“It’s such an annoying part of our game. You’re not supposed to be doing this. And the umpire is letting him get away with it,” Woodbridge said.

De Minaur had been bidding to make the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for a second time. But he couldn’t stay with Medvedev after dropping a tight second set.

He took his own long break after that, prompting another comment from Woodbridge.

“Just to be consistent, Alex is taking a break now… but this is going to add another six minutes, including the six-to-seven minutes we had [for Medvedev],” Woodbridge said.

Medvedev said after the match he had struggled with the heat in New York, even briefly considering retiring from the match.

He said the conditions were the “most brutal” he had played in, and admitted struggling physically when de Minaur snatched his early advantage.

De Minaur’s departure ends Australia’s participation in the US Open singles.

Medvedev, who was runner-up in 2019 before denying Novak Djokovic a calendar-year grand slam sweep two years ago, advances to an all-Russian quarter-final against eighth seed Andrey Rublev.

That didn’t look on the cards early against de Minaur, whose aggressive play had the former world No.1 rattled and made a repeat of his win over Medvedev in Toronto last month seem a distinct possibility.

Playing aggressive tennis, de Minaur won nine of nine points rushing the net and broke Medvedev in the fifth and seventh games to steam through the opening set in 32 minutes.

But a spectacular tweener from Medvedev during a 34-shot winning rally sparked the Russian into action midway through the second set.

De Minaur had to fight off five break points to hold for 2-2 but couldn’t recover from 15-40 down serving at 4-5 as Medvedev levelled the match at a set apiece.

The Russian shifted up a gear in the fourth, overpowering de Minaur from the back with two more breaks to take a two-sets-to-one lead.

It was all but over when de Minaur dropped serve twice more in the fourth set as Medvedev surged to 5-1 before closing out the contest after two hours and 40 minutes.

– with AAP