Medvedev Aiming To Find Golden Touch In Turin

Daniil Medvedev has produced some of his best tennis at the Nitto ATP Finals in recent years, soaring to the title in 2020 before he reached the final last season.

However, he was unable to find top gear in his opening match at the 2022 edition, falling to Andrey Rublev on Monday in Turin.

“There are some matches where you feel you’re untouchable, and everything you do — let’s put it this way — turns into gold,” Medvedev said in his post-match press conference. “Today was not one of them.

“I didn’t feel amazing during the match. I would enjoy it if I would feel better in terms of tennis. But, again, looking back, [there were] some great points. This can make you play better and turn things into gold in the next matches.”

Medvedev produced moments of brilliance during the two-hour, 31-minute Red Group clash, but was unable to consistently deliver to earn victory. The 26-year-old admitted that he struggled to cope with the fast indoor conditions at the Pala Alpitour, but hopes he can adjust ahead of his second match against Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“[It is] super tough to go from Vienna, which is fast hard court, and I generally like fast hard courts more than slow hard courts, to [Paris] where it was probably the slowest indoor hard court,” Medvedev said. “Here is the fastest of the year. To get used to it you need matches. That was a match today, so that is why I’m saying I hope the next one is going to be better.

“That’s why I had some mistakes where I was late on the legs, was late in the movement and took the ball late.”

Medvedev is aiming to become the 11th player to win multiple Nitto ATP Finals titles this week. In 2020, he defeated Dominic Thiem in a three-set thriller to win the biggest title of his career at the time.