Daniil Medvedev is all geared up to play in the Cincinnati Masters, after a surprise loss to Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto. In a pre-tournament press conference, Medvedev was asked a wide range of questions, and a certain someone named Carlos Alcaraz featured heavily in his answers. The Russian had a special mention for the Spaniard when talking about how players are trying one particular shot against him much more after observing Carlos have success with it. And he has asked others to do better if they are going to try the same tactic, or risk losing.
While Medvedev admitted that Alcaraz’s presence in any tournament has an impact on their training, he still took the presser as an opportunity to slam his fellow colleagues on the ATP Tour. The Russian believes that most of them attempt to blindly copy Alcaraz perhaps in the belief that his strategies work the most against almost every player, which is not true according to the World No.3.
I watch Carlos Alcaraz matches like a fan: Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev revealed the difference between playing and watching Carlos Alcaraz. He is of the opinion that the Spaniard is not invincible if a player looks to bring out his original game. Recently, Tommy Paul of the United States beat Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of the Toronto Masters and Medvedev gave that example to prove his point.
“When he plays and we’re sitting in a restaurant looking, we’re not discussing too much like, ‘Did you see this?’ We’re more like fans, looking, and seeing what happens. For example, Tommy Paul, it wasn’t the first time he brought trouble to Carlos, so it can be interesting to see what he does.”
Medvedev also cited the increase in use of the drop shots on the ATP Tour since Carlos Alcaraz is a master of it. The US Open 2021 champion highlighted this year’s Miami Masters, where he claimed that every player he faced overused that shot perhaps because of the success Alcaraz has had with it. Yet, that tactic did not work against Medvedev since they were not good enough with it and the Russian pounced on their inefficiency.
“It’s also interesting when like, for example, Carlos was doing a lot of drop shots against me in Indian Wells, and then in Miami, I felt like everyone was doing drop shots against me. I was like, ‘Yeah, but you have to do them like Carlos, otherwise I’m there and I hit the winner,’ and I won Miami!, Medvedev continued.
This Daniil Medvedev observation does have merit since many young players such as Jannik Sinner, Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas have looked to employ the forehand drop shot on many occasions since 2021. However, as compared to the period before that, the success rate overall on the ATP Tour has dropped from 52 to 48 percent. If forehand and backhand drop shots are considered together, then apart from Carlos Alcaraz, as expected, only Rafael Nadal has found success with 58% and 46% win percentages respectively.
Medvedev expecting a better result at Cincinnati
Daniil Medvedev is all set to open his Cincinnati Masters campaign against either Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti or Washington Open champion, Dan Evans. It is likely that Medvedev could face one of his long-time rivals, Alexander Zverev in the third round for the 16th time in his career. The Russian star is in the same draw as Novak Djokovic, which means he could be his semi-final opponent.
Medvedev admitted that he was taken a bit aback because of having to deal with the unexpected, transitioning quickly from grass to hard courts. He confirmed that he realized the mistakes he made in Toronto recently, which cost him the tournament in the match against de Minaur. He was further quoted as saying –
“When I was practicing in Toronto before the tournament, it’s always different when you come from grass courts and it’s the first [hard-court] tournament,” explained the 27-year-old. “So, I didn’t even expect anything on practice and I was just waiting for the matches to start; that’s when you see how you’re doing with everything.
“Now is when I can say, ‘I had three matches in Toronto,’ and I did feel like I was missing a little bit of shots where I could have put my opponent in trouble. I’m going to try and work on this in the two-three days I have in practice, and hopefully integrate that into the tournament.”
Nevertheless, Medvedev always remains a threat especially on any hard court. Perhaps, the Cincinnati Masters will give a better picture to many as to how much the Russian stands a chance to win the US Open for the second time in his career. The 2021 win is his only Grand Slam so far as he has missed out on three major hard court finals before this, 2 against Rafael Nadal (2019 US Open and 2022 Australian Open) and Novak Djokovic (2021 Australian Open).
