When World No.3 Daniil Medvedev was asked about the 20-year-old in a conversation with the media team of the Cincinnati Open prior to the start of the tournament, the Russian minced no words in revealing what he thinks about the hype surrounding Carlos Alcaraz. Medvedev spoke about practicing imagining Alcaraz being on the other side of the net due to the high probability of facing him in a match in most competitions.
Carlos Alcaraz is on a roll in 2023, winning 50 matches in the season so far. The World No.1 on Tuesday beat Australia’s Jordan Thompson in Cincinnati last. The Spaniard is getting set for the US Open, despite a minor blip of losing in the Rogers Cup Round of 16 recently. Alcaraz will be one of the favorites to win the last Grand Slam of the year, being its defending champion. Medvedev, who will also be one of the favorites, is clearly wary of the youngster.
Carlos Alcaraz has dominated Daniil Medvedev
Carlos Alcaraz has had the edge over Daniil Medvedev in 2023, as the Spaniard won against him in straight sets both in the Indian Wells Masters final and the Wimbledon semi-final. This looks to have taken Medvedev aback to a huge extent, especially since Medvedev is a hard court specialist and Alcaraz is the only player from this generation to have got the better of him on it, apart from Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
In the frank conversation, Medvedev admitted that Alcaraz’s impact has been huge on the game and the threat of playing him always lurks around. It is to such an extent that the Russian claims that he is practicing nowadays keeping in mind that Alcaraz is his opponent, since a player needs to take more risks and think quicker on his feet when playing him, which adds to the pressure.
“It’s always a balance because every time I practice from now on, I can be thinking that it’s Carlos on the other side, so what should I do?
“The other question is that, to get to Carlos, it will probably be the semis or final, and so you need to beat other guys before and I’m not sure if I would play them like I would play Carlos. With Carlos, you have to take a little more risk, but with other guys, I’m not sure. So, it’s always a balance so it’s not like, you’re only thinking about Carlos but then you lose in the first round and you’re thinking, ‘Well, at least I was prepared for Carlos!’’
In fact, Daniil Medvedev also mentioned in the same interaction about often watching Carlos Alcaraz more like a fan on TV. He also ridiculed other players for blindly trying to copy Alcaraz in the hope of finding more success.
Is Medvedev overthinking?
Daniil Medvedev could perhaps be taking the Alcaraz threat way too seriously. While there is no doubt that Alcaraz is a major hurdle for any player looking to win the biggest titles in tennis, there is also something like giving an opponent too much respect. That would hamper his game in the long-run as having the fear of failure against a player like Alcaraz is a sure way to lose.
In the Cincinnati Masters, Medvedev is in the same draw as Novak Djokovic but the Russian seems to be distracted by the potential threat of the Wimbledon champion. But this could be chalked down to the fact that he has beaten Djokovic on the biggest stage, winning his maiden and only Grand Slam at the US Open in 2021, while he has yet to dispatch Alcaraz at a Major.
