If it were up to Daniil Medvedev, one suspect he’d happily play all his tennis on the hard courts of North America. It’s not as if he plays badly elsewhere, it’s just the comfort with which he plays here. The 2019 US Open finalist would like to go one step further this year and the Russian couldn’t have asked for a better start to his US Open 2020 campaign.
The first three matches at this year’s US Open have been mightily clinical from the Russian, who has not yet dropped a set in New York. In fact, he looks to have hardly broken a sweat and his game looks to be in a very good place right now.
It has to be said that his opponents are only going to get tougher from here, but Medvedev looks ready to take on just about anyone. His latest scalp, J.J. Wolf, experienced first hand why punching a hole through Medvedev’s defenses is a challenge very few manage to overcome. Credit to the American though for trying till the last point and Wolf should be mighty pleased with his run at this year’s US Open.
The final scoreline against Wolf read 6-3 6-3 6-2 and it was a match featuring some brilliant defensive play from the Russian. Medvedev looked down and out in numerous points only to hit extraordinary defensive gets to get out of jail. The Russian prefers to hang back and is content with just driving the ball deep, playing the patience game. Approach the net against Medvedev at your peril because the Russian’s passing shots are top notch especially off of his two-hander.
It’s a slightly unorthodox game that Medvedev brings but it’s what has enabled him to have the season he had in 2019. He almost pulled off one of the greatest comebacks ever against Rafael Nadal at last year’s US Open and it made everyone see the mental challenge it is to break the Russian’s game. Medvedev isn’t afraid to change tactics either when things aren’t going his way and is one of the highly intelligent problem-solvers on tour.
Mentally, Medvedev looks in the zone and more importantly determined to go all the way. He’s slated to play Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals and Dominic Thiem in the semifinals and based on how he has played so far at this year’s US Open, the Russian is not an opponent either man will relish facing.
Main photo:
Embed from Getty Images
