Daniil Medvedev will take on Alexander Zverev for the 5th time in 2023 in the China Open semifinals on Tuesday. Irrespective of the eventual match result, Medvedev has created history with this latest achievement of his. The World No.3 has already done what even Novak Djokovic has not managed to do in his 20-year career so far.
The Russian star has been around the ATP Tour for the last 6-7 years now. He has had a reputation of being a hard court specialist and that has been enhanced further. Medvedev is one rare player to have made it to the semifinals or finals of all indoor plus outdoor hard-court ATP tournaments played in a calendar year.
Daniil Medvedev vs. Novak Djokovic: Who is the hard court king of tennis?
Many would argue and in a way rightfully so that Novak Djokovic is. Djokovic beat Medvedev in the US Open 2023 final to win his 24th Grand Slam title and on hard courts alone, that made it the Serb’s 14th Grand Slam win. The World No.1 also has an all-time record of winning 6 Nitto ATP Finals titles alongside Roger Federer.
Incredibly, Djokovic has won multiple titles at almost every hard-court venue he has played in his career so far. Taking into account that he turned pro in the early 2000s, the most high-profile, hard-court ATP tournaments have been played in Indian Wells, Miami, Canada, Cincinnati, Basel, Vienna, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Acapulco, Rotterdam and Dubai.
The only two venues he has not managed to succeed at, are Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Acapulco in Mexico. In his only appearance so far back in 2010 in Rotterdam, Novak Djokovic had made it to the semifinals. While in 2017, Djokovic lost to Nick Kyrgios in the quarterfinals of the Mexico Open.
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On the other hand, Daniil Medvedev has already won at least one title in Vienna, Rotterdam, Dubai, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, Cincinnati, Canada and Miami besides the US Open in 2021. In Acapulco, he missed out narrowly in 2022, losing to the in-form Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Medvedev has also made it to an Australian Open final, Indian Wells final and the semifinals in Basel and now Beijing respectively.
As a result, Medvedev has the honor of having played in the semifinals of all ATP 500, 1000 Masters and Grand Slam hard court tournaments. Interestingly, the one venue where he has played and Djokovic has never done so, is Washington D.C. The Russian opted to play there in 2019 for the first time to prep for the US Open, but lost to Nick Kyrgios in the final.
The Washington D.C achievement might tilt the argument in Daniil Medvedev’s favor when it comes to deciding the hard court champion of tennis currently. Novak Djokovic has taken double the years that his rival has to achieve that level of consistency. Although Medvedev still has a long way to go to match Djokovic’s wins, he is already getting there with every tournament.
Medvedev vs Zverev China Open semifinal
At the time of writing this report, the first set was extremely competitive, which Daniil Medvedev won 6-4. The winner of the match will play the winner of the 2nd semifinal between top seed Carlos Alcaraz and 2023 Rogers Cup champion, Jannik Sinner. Medvedev has already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals 2023 but would be aiming at least for a top 2 finish in the rankings this year.
Arguably, Daniil Medvedev has been the second best player on the ATP Tour in 2023 if number of wins are considered. Carlos Alcaraz has won 60 matches while the Russian is not far behind with 58 of those in his name at the moment.
