The term 'genius' gets thrown around the sports world a bit too liberally for some.
Wayne Gretzky was considered a genius on the ice; Michael Jordan on the basketball court. The Belichick-Brady combo, which has now accounted for six Super Bowl titles up Interstate 95 in New England, is surely the stuff of genius.
Tennis, of course, has had its supposed geniuses, too. The Donnay-wielding Bjorn Borg, perfect hair, perfect strokes, went back-to-back at Roland Garros and Wimbledon three straight times between 1978 and 1980, his clay-to-grass acumen unmatched in the sport. Upon the Swede's triumph at the All England Club in '79, second-round victim Vijay Amritraj said, "This man is a genius. Any man who wins a tournament four times, on a surface he plays once a year, is an absolute genius."
When it comes to the serve-and-volley game (and the art of unnerving both chair ump and opponent), Borg's nemesis, Superbrat John McEnroe, was surely a surly genius.
Pete Sampras' '90s-long run, during which he claimed the year-end No. 1 ranking a record six times and won seven Wimbledon trophies, led scribes like the Guardian's Stephen Bierley to crown him "the genial genius of grass."
More recently, Roger Federer has been deemed a genius, time and again. Devotees of the Swiss perfectionist can be spotted in Basel, in Beijing, hoisting banners that plead: SHHHH!! QUIET, GENIUS AT WORK.
Of course, there's a genius of another kind, too, the mad sort. Russian Daniil Medvedev might be recognized as such, part savant, part mischief-maker. Even his coach of five years, Frenchman Gilles Cervara, would agree.
"His game is like his personality, very different," said Cervara. "It's like coaching a genius. Sometimes a genius, you don't understand them. They're different. And you have to connect to this guy like he is."
Despite a dominant summer, in which the 23-year-old reached consecutive finals in Washington, Montreal and Cincinnati, where he captured the first Masters 1000 title of his career, Medvedev pulled into Queens, a relative unknown. No, this wasn't the Medvedev who pushed Andre Agassi to five sets in the Roland Garros final back in '99 (that was Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev), or the Medvedev who has served as Russia's prime minister since 2012 (that's Dmitry Medvedev).
No, this is the Medvedev who has twice downed world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in 2019, who is personable and polite in person, yet prone to the occasional flare-up on the tennis court. New Yorkers soon got a glimpse of this side of Medvedev when, after matches, he all but dared the gathered horde to shower him with boos. Through five rounds—including a quarterfinal takedown of 2016 champ Stan Wawrinka—he barked, smirked and urged on his disapprovers.
After defeating Spanish vet Feliciano Lopez in the third round, Medvedev thanked the pro-Feli crowd, tongue in cheek, for aiding his cause.
"Thank you all, guys, because your energy tonight give me the win," he said, happy to play the villain. "Because if you were not here, guys, I would probably lose the match because I was so tired. I was cramping yesterday. It was so tough on me to play. So I want all of you to know, when you sleep tonight, I won because of you."
Photographs of the Muscovite, arms outstretched, inviting spectators to show their disapproval, popped up everywhere. Medvedev was no longer an unknown commodity.
"I was an idiot, to be honest," confessed Medvedev, who has now played 21 matches in a span of 36 days. "I did some things that I'm not proud of and that I'm working on to be a better person on the court because I do think I'm a good person out of the court."
But an interesting thing happened. New Yorkers took a liking to him. How couldn't they? Here was an outsider, surrounded, unabashedly welcoming their wrath. That took some gumption, a sort of what’s-a-matter-you? fortitude to which folks in this corner of the world could relate. It turns out, Daniil Medvedev was one of their own.
It will be fascinating to see who ticketholders side with when the No. 5 seed takes the court against Grigor Dimitrov in what will be the Russian’s first Grand Slam semifinal.
Dimitrov, who broke a seven-match skid against five-time champion Roger Federer in the quarters, is playing his most inspired tennis in months. The Bulgarian rose as high as No. 3 in 2017, the year he went 5-0 at the ATP Finals, the first debutant to claim the title in nearly two decades. But a combination of underperformance and injuries have slowed his progress. (He came into the tournament ranked No. 78, a seven-year low.)
"Obviously, he's been pretty focused throughout the whole summer," said Dimitrov of his next opponent. "He's been having a great summer, a lot of confidence building up, winning Cincinnati. A lot of good matches, a lot behind him. Clearly, he's doing something right."
They have only faced each other twice, both matches coming in 2017, and are even, at 1-1.
"I'm really happy for Grigor, that he's coming back to his shape," said Medvedev. "He was playing unbelievable this week. We all know what he's capable of when he's playing like he can."
