There was a time that Daniil Medvedev was the world number 1 ranked tennis player. Most of the time when this happens the person involved gradually has a downhill sort of decline in performance as they slowly slip lower and lower in the rankings and eventually retire.
In his situation it was just 1 year where he went from being someone that you were probably going to lose to, to being someone that was exiting tournaments very early in the stages and often to players ranked 100 places below him and sometimes to people you have never even heard of.
In the past 6 months or so he has been making a mostly successful comeback.
If you are a fan of this guy though, he did something that he regularly does in that he started out badly and it looked like yet again he was going to have some sort of meltdown, smash a racquet (why is spell-checker telling me this has to be spelled "racket"?) or argue with the ref and get fined for swearing in Russian.
I don't know what has changed with the guy, but I think a lot of it has to do with some sort of psychology and perhaps a mental coach instead of just a tennis coach. Despite going down 2-0 in a best of 3, he kept his composure and didn't let the anger of appearing as though he was going to lose to a relative nobody get to him. Whatever it is that he did, it worked and after BARELY winning the 3rd set 7-5, he then turned a corner and played like the championship-level caliber sort of tennis player that us fans really like to see.
In set 4 he won 6-3 and Fabian Marozsan was starting to look very gassed whereas Meddy looked as though he was somehow getting faster.
I've never been good at tennis, I tried when I was younger but the way in which Daniil was placing cross court shots just on the line almost exactly is something that will always amaze me.
One of the most impressive parts of Meddy's game is his absolutely explosive first serve. There were some serves where Fabian didn't even move because he could tell that there was no chance he was going to be able to reach it.
perhaps it is Daniil's relative tallness that makes some of these shots possible, or maybe he has just the right sort of muscle memory to make it happen, but the last 3 sets were a master-class in the excellence that Medvedev used to showcase every single time that he would play.
I kept waiting for him to lose his composure, smash a racket (you happy now spell-checker?) shout at the official, eat the $100,000 fine and then get booed off the court, but instead, he kept it together the entire time even though the crowd seemed to be primarily rooting for Fabian.
I'm gonna say this and keep it brief. There are two sets of fans that I hold a grudge against in the world of tennis. One of the is the Australians. They seem to want to bring politics into everything and that seems to be the case here. Medvedev is Russian and there is a lot of talk from Australians how they STILL want all Russian players to be banned from international competitions because their country is at war. You do not hear these calls about anyone from Ukraine. I don't care to get into a discussion about that conflict or the politics surrounding them but jeez guys, what does this have to do with tennis? Is Daniil a general in his time off from playing tennis or something? I also will never forgive the Australians for the way that they treated Novak Djokovic during the Covid insanity.
Daniil didn't let the boos and lack of cheering for him get to him though and he was truly in his 'happy place' throughout the entire match.
I always look forward to his post-match interviews because he is extremely good with the words he speaks as well as playing tennis. He is so eloquent and a lot of times people need to keep in mind that not only is this guy one of the best tennis players in the world but he also speaks Russian (of course), English and French fluently. He is truly a remarkable human being.
Now that I am on a high because my favorite tennis player made it to the 4th round where he is facing Learner Tien from USA I am trying to stay grounded. He very well could lose to Tien as well as anyone else.
But the really bad news is that he is in the same portion of the bracket as world number one Carlos Alcaraz, and head-to-head they are 6-2 with Alcaraz having most of the wins. The last time that Medvedev won against Carlos was 2023, every time they have met since then it has been a pretty one-sided affair. The only good thing is that Alcaraz has been looking a bit off in his game in this tournament.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Before Daniil even has a chance to face Alcaraz, he need to obviously defeat Learner Tien who is ranked 25th in the world, then play either Rublev or Zverev.... Medvedev has an overall winning record against both of these guys but this comes from when he was in his prime back in 2022/2023.
I'm loving this tournament so far and am very happy that my favorite player is finally playing like he belongs there. I will be delighted if he makes it even further.