Since the dawn of Open tennis in 1968, a combined total of 51 men and women have known the singular feeling of standing alone at the end of the US Open fortnight. Fifty years, 51 champions.
Ask any of those 51 and they’ll tell you—it takes so much more than talent to win here. You need the whole package: intelligence, desire, stamina, courage. You need to own every shot in the book, and when that’s not enough, you need to be ready to write a new chapter or two. Indeed, the courts of the US Open are tennis’ ultimate proving grounds. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Twelve former champions are in the field at the 2019 US Open, which figures to make adding to the total of 51 that much more difficult. But there are a number of players with the talent and tenacity to make the difficult disappear; a group which just may have the stuff to claim tennis’ toughest title. As we look forward to the 2019 US Open, USOpen.org takes a closer look at some of those players, asking the question: “Who’s 52?”
In this installment, we highlight Daniil Medvedev.
Last summer, unseeded Daniil Medvedev matched what was then a career-best Grand Slam result at the US Open. A year later, the rising Russian is one of the hottest players in the game, having made the North American summer his personal coming out party.
The 23-year-old Russian has rocketed up the rankings in the last 12 months, going from outside the Top 50 to a career-high ranking of No.5 entering this year's final Grand Slam. A ranking rise like that can only mean one thing: winning, and lots of it. The Russian won his biggest career title at the Masters 1000 event at the Western & Southern Open last week, and was also the runner-up at the Citi Open and the Rogers Cup during the US Open Series. By winning in Cincinnati, Medvedev passed Rafael Nadal for the most match wins on the ATP tour this year (44), and leads the tour with six finals reached this year. He dethroned defeding champion Novak Djokovic in the Cincy semifinals - for his second win over the Serb this year - and beat Belgian David Goffin in the final.
"It's been the best weeks in my life. Mentality was the best in my life. My serve was the best in my life. My tennis was really consistent," Medvedev said after winning Cincinnati. "I didn't have one bad match. I'm just extremely happy. Hopefully I can continue this way well through all my career but hopefully at least next few weeks."
He appeared in the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in January, giving Djokovic all he could handle in a four-set defeat in the round of 16, and became Russia's top-ranked male player after reaching the final in Montreal.
"To reach my first [Grand Slam] quarterfinal will be good, and I take it match by match. If I will be in quarterfinal, I will try to do my best to win everything, but at this moment I need to take it step by step and just become better player every day," he added.
"[Entering the Top 5 is] a huge achievement which I couldn't probably believe three weeks ago, because I just entered the Top 10. When somebody was asking me, I was saying, 'Well, it's going to be good if I manage to stay there for some time, hopefully for long time.' Now I'm Top 5. That's huge."
In addition to racking up victories, the Russian has also been collecting praise from his peers on the circuit: having earned the "respect" of Djokovic, which the world No.1 highlighted after their match in Australia, he's also been called "tough to play" by two-time Grand Slam finalist Dominic Thiem, and "very smart" on the court by former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori.
Having gone 1-11 against the ATP tour's elite to begin his career, Medvedev has posted six wins in eight matches against Top 10 players since April: including all three of the aforementioned stars.
"He deserves to be in the mix, certainly, with all his results. He's working his way to Top 5 of the world. He's definitely one of the best players in the world at this moment," Djokovic said after losing to Medvedev in Ohio.
"He deserves to be in the contention for the championship in New York."
To read more from this series, visit our "Who's 52?" landing page.
