Medvedev, who excels on hard courts, considers playing on clay

If it were up to me, there would only be hard courts, he grinned after defeating Jannik Sinner in the Miami final in straight sets.

With the exception of Indian Wells, where he was defeated in the final by Carlos Alcaraz earlier this month, Medvedev has now won every hard court ATP Masters tournament. This was his fourth triumph of the hard court season.

The performances in California and Miami were undoubtedly in competitions where Novak Djokovic, who has won 13 Grand Slam titles on hard courts, wasn’t there.

Medvedev also managed to avoid a rematch with world number one Alcaraz in Miami, after the Spaniard lost a thrilling semi-final to Sinner on Friday.

But there was a businesslike ease to Medvedev’s win on Sunday which came after a tough three-set battle past compatriot Karen Khachanov in the semi-final.

Unfortunately though for the Russian, the tour now moves on to clay and then grass, surfaces where his record is less impressive.

According to Medvedev, the key distinction between the surfaces is that on hard, he can still win games even when not performing well.
Despite the fact that I can play just fine on grass and clay, I feel my best on hard courts. My range of motion is greatest on hard courts. And on hard courts, I can play below par tennis and still prevail in the matches, which is a significant difference, he told reporters after defeating Sinner 7-5, 6-3. I am aware of my clay-court playing prowess. I once defeated Novak (Djokovic) on clay.

I actually beat (Stefanos) Tsitsipas and Novak in the same tournament once. That’s a pretty good achievement on clay,” he added, referring to the 2019 Monte Carlo Masters.

Yet on hard courts like these, I feel like I didn’t play my best tennis in a lot of the matches, yet I still managed to win them and advance in the tournament. For me, clay courts are harder.

“I can lose much more easily if I don’t play my best tennis. Therefore I’m hoping to be at my best during clay court season “said he.

As a result of his recent form, Medvedev, who was outside the top 10 as recently as mid-February, will rise to fourth place in the ATP world rankings on Monday.

The Russian has little to lose in the rankings calculations leading up to the French Open because he missed a significant portion of the clay season last year due to a hernia procedure.

AFP