Top coach is not optimistic about Daniil Medvedev's future

11/27/2024 03:30 PM

Daniil Medvedev has experienced the most complicated season since 2018, when he became a top player. The former world No. 1 hasn't played his best tennis for most of the year and has often seemed close to a nervous breakdown on the court.

The Russian champion ended 2024 without having won a single title, a very negative figure that will prompt him to make a series of reflections during the off-season. The 2021 US Open champion has already said that he will speak with Gilles Cervara and Gilles Simon in the coming weeks, having understood that he has to change something in his game to become competitive again at the highest level.

The player from Moscow has achieved some good results during the season, such as the finals at the Australian Open and Indian Wells (or the semifinals at the Wimbledon Championships), but he is currently much inferior to Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

The two young leaders of the men's tour know Daniil's game and his weaknesses very well, which is why the Russian has lost his certainties and has also begun to lose against second-tier opponents. The repeated defeats against Jannik and Carlitos have affected his confidence and it will not be easy to find new solutions to defeat them.

In a press conference during the ATP Finals, Medvedev had admitted that he no longer enjoys playing tennis and complained once again about the balls. The world number 5 believes that the current surfaces and the balls used by the ATP favor a certain type of players too much.

After a small break, the Russian will start working for next season. The former world number 1 will be one of the most anticipated players at the upcoming Australian Open, a tournament in which he has always played but where he has never managed to win. Daniil came close to winning in both 2022 and 2024, but was defeated by Rafael Nadal and Jannik Sinner, respectively, despite a two-sets lead. Those losses affected the mind of Medvedev, who had already lost the final in Melbourne in 2021 (against Nole Djokovic).

In a recent interview with Russian media outlet ‘Championnat’, Ivan Pridankin – who was Medvedev’s coach at the beginning of his career – opened up on Daniil’s current status: “I don't think next season will be easier for Daniil. Maybe even more difficult than 2024 season. He has a few problems in the game plan, which I don't really know how to solve as a coach. How can he compete with Sinner and Alcaraz? And it will be just as difficult to compete with Zverev. And I don't see how that can be solved at the moment. His team is probably looking for ways to evolve. Staying between 4th to 10th place is the most likely evolution. As for winning a Grand Slam title and moving up to first or second place in the ranking, the question arises.”

His former coach believes that Medvedev does not have much chance of reaching the level of Jannik and Carlitos, who have much more power from baseline and are more skilled near the net. Daniil had dominated Jannik at the beginning of their rivalry becoming a nightmare for him, before Sinner had his rise and improved his serve a lot. With the exception of the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Championships - in which the Italian ace was suffering from an illness - the world number 1 has dominated the last clashes with the Russian.

Alcaraz - on the other hand - has never suffered against Medvedev's game which has never put him in trouble (except at the 2023 US Open).

During this season, the world number 5 has said several times that he does not like either surfaces or balls. “I have a bigger problem on tour. You know, some players get advantaged by it; some players disadvantaged. It's okay. It can happen. But it's big disadvantage for me” – he stated in a recent interview.

"As I say, some players will like this ball, so I get it. I'm crying because it disadvantages me. But if you take six balls out of the new balls out of the can, if you look closely and you bounce them, there are going to be six different balls. I don't think that's how it's supposed to be," Medvedev concluded.

It is certainly a very delicate moment for the career of the Russian champion, who must first of all recover his certainties to return to compete at the highest level. The first tournaments of 2025 will be very important for his future, after a season with many more shadows than lights.