I don't watch anything other than the majors as far as tennis is concerned and there are plenty of those. They take place all over the world and sometimes the time zones just don't match up so I don't watch everything there is to see. I don't remember exactly why I started to like Medvedev but I think it had something to do with how he handled the anti-Russian stuff that was unfairly being directed towards him. He handled it in a civil manner and for the most part, and wisely, refused to talk about it. At one point some tournament managers demanded that Danlil denounce his country's actions in Ukraine or they would not let him in the tournament. Obviously this could have very severe repercussions for him and his family and he wisely refused and wouldn't answer questions about it with the press. I was also happy that the ATP and other governing bodies told, I think it was Wimbledon, that they cannot do this and they would be stripped of their place in the global position as an important "major" if they were going to to try to pull political crap like this. Politics need to be left out of sports, period.
I also tend to like him because he is very good and the way that he interacts with referees is quite humorous. He also handles heckling from the crowd in a very profound way.
He wins some tournaments but you know, loses quite a few as well. He rarely exits tournaments early but when he does i is always a bit disappointing.
A recent interaction with a referee, which you can see the short here if you like is just fantastic. He is asking the referee to close the roof because it has started raining and the ref states it is not his decision. This screencap kind of sums it up if you don't want to watch the short.
I guess you could say I also like him because he is not your typical shape of a star tennis player. He is quite a bit taller than the average star yet he moves like he is one of the shorter guys.
He also keeps his cool pretty well although every now and then the pressure gets to him just like it does to everyone else.
he has been upset by lower players and he has upset quite a few along the way as well. He sits in the world top 5 consistently for years even when he was being denied entrance because of his nationality.
At the moment he is number 4 in the world and at just 28 years of age, we can plan on him sticking around for quite a few years, barring any sort of freak injury. Normally, if he departs a tournament early, I stop watching that tournament because I don't really have a horse in the game anymore.
His combination of skills, wit, and charismatic humor makes him my favorite in the world. Who is your favorite tennis player and why?