Medvedev Taking Hard-Court Mentality Into Paris
Second seed Daniil Medvedev is delighted with the conditions in Paris ahead of Roland Garros as he aims to replicate his strong form on hard courts and progress past the opening round at the tournament for the first time in his career.
“I have to say coming here was my first practice yesterday, I was playing amazing so far. I didn’t feel that it was clay. I was playing like on hard courts, and hopefully, have some expectations,” Medvedev said. “I really like the conditions here so far, and looking forward to making a great tournament, to be honest. I feel amazing. I feel happy about life. I feel happy about tennis. First time in two months. So that’s just a great feeling.”
In September, Medvedev lost in the first round at Roland Garros to Marton Fucsovics, with clay being a surface he has struggled on in comparison to hard courts over the years. The Russian holds a 148-59 record on hard and his 10 titles have all come on the surface, including last year’s Nitto ATP Finals crown and three ATP Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati (2019), Shanghai (2019) and Paris (2020).
This is in comparison to an 11-20 record on clay, with Medvedev recently losing to World No. 26 Aslan Karatsev in Rome and Cristian Garin in the Last 16 in Madrid. However, the 25-year-old is focused ahead of his opening round clash against World No. 37 Alexander Bublik.
“For me being in the zone basically means not missing the ball, because that’s where I’m strong. That’s when I know that, for my opponents, it’s going to be tough to beat me. Even of course sometimes they will succeed, sometimes the best ones when they play well. But it makes it tougher for my opponent,” Medvedev said. “For me it is to just practise hard, try to make the routine good, not make stupid decisions outside of the court, and then like this, the zone will come on the court one day.”
On Thursday this week, Roland Garros revealed a statue of 13-time champion Rafael Nadal. This prompted Medvedev to be asked where he would want his monument to be placed in the future if he were to have the success that the Spaniard has had. For Medvedev, the answer was clear.
“Oh, in Russia. That’s an easy answer, because that’s my home country, and of course if I manage to do something amazing on the court, and when I say ‘amazing,’ I find that yet I have not done anything to have a monument, so I need to do better,” Medvedev replied. “Then, I would be really proud if it was somewhere in Russia, of course better in Moscow but tougher in Moscow, there is going to be a monument of Daniil Medvedev.”