I have been a fan of Daniil Medvedev for quite a while. There are many reasons why this is the case but a lot of it is because I like his style and I also like the way that he handled the way where some people wanted to ban all Russian and Belarusian players from the sport. He also seems to be a very intelligent person, speaking multiple languages and handling humor very well in his interviews.
It also helps that when he is doing well, the guy looks damn near unstoppable.
at 6 foot 6, he is also a kind of "strange" shape to be one of the best in the world
When his career started to nosedive a little about 4 years ago, I got a bit worried but at the same time it also kind of made me like him even more. This is a guy that at one time was the world number 1 and was a strong contender to win almost all tournaments on earth. He would break people's hearts or make them cheer by winning over hometown favorites and breaking the streaks of others and even denying others a full Grand Slam title (winning all the 4 major tournaments in a single year), which is what he did to Novak Djokovic when he won the US Open in straight sets back in 2021.
During those times you could tell that the guy was kind of rattled because he would routinely argue with umpires and then destroy his own equipment then later apologize for it, only to repeat the same thing in the next tournament that he was in.
Despite this, people kept inviting him because let's face it, he is entertaining and a bit of bad attitude never stopped the crowds (remember John MacEnroe?) from coming out to see him.
When he entered BNP Paribas, the usual pundits in sport suggested that he would do another early departure because this is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and all the big names turn up for it. When he would win in Dubai or something like that, nobody really took notice because the truly huge names weren't even there for the most part. But in Indian Wells, all of them are there.
This was especially true when he won a match he was meant to lose and then advance to the semi-final where he would face current world number 1, Carlos Alcaraz - who basically just beats everyone these days and has (or I should say "had) a 16-match unbeaten streak.
Not only did Medvedev win this match, but he appeared rather dominant in the first set winning it 6-3.
In the second set Alcaraz seemed to find his rhythm, but Medvedev never lost his. It went to a tiebreaker where Medvedev broke serve TWICE and won the tibreaker 7-3 as well.
Many other men, who have faced such a downfall in their performance over the past several years, might have used this opportunity to gloat and go wild but Daniil calmly walked to the net, congratulated his opponent and then was very gracious to the press afterwards going so far as to downplay the significance of what he just did.
Unfortunately, he would end up playing Sinner in the next match and losing rather convincingly and I don't think anyone liked that because almost no one is a fan of Jannik Sinner because of the level of favoritism that he is shown by the ATP whose president just happens to be the same nationality as he is. It doesn't help that he is a smug-looking ginger, I'm sure.
src
I'm joking with the last part of the comment, in case it wasn't obvious
I don't know why, but the news media seems to favor some players and absolutely hate others. Djokovic has been an enemy of the media since Covid times because he didn't want to get vaccinated and I suspect they feel the same way about Medvedev because he has committed the horrible crime of being Russian.
In the round of 32 the media suggested he would lose to Baez, but he won 6-4, 6-0. In the round of 16 they said the same thing but only louder when he faced Alex Michelson, a guy who is ranked a full 33 places BEHIND Daniil - Medvedev won that one 6-2, 6-4. The said "the honeymoon is over!" when he faced world number 14 Jack Draper, a match Daniil won 6-1, 7-5 and then they accused Medvedev of cheating for contesting an umpire's call.
When he advanced to face world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz, most of the media was almost giddy with the notion that he had no chance of winning this one... and then he did in a rather commanding fashion.
By the time he had advanced to the final they finally stopped bashing him but still favored Jannik Sinner, which to be fair is probably a pretty good call but who knows?? when you are hot you are hot.
Daniil Medvedev put up a great fight and it was a fantastic final, but Sinner, despite the sometimes mean things I say about him, truly is one of the best of our era. Both sets went to tie-breakers and Medvedev barely lost both of them.
I was disappointed that he didn't win the whole thing but I really relished the way that he stuck it to all the naysayers, especially those in the media.
Now let's see if he can carry this momentum into the future...