This January, when Daniil Medvedev was unceremoniously bounced from the Australian Open in the third round by American Sebastian Korda (after reaching the final in the two previous years), the mood in his camp was decidedly sour. A run of less-than-stellar results—by his own lofty standards—had caused his ranking to plummet outside of the Top-10 for the first time in nearly four years, and the 2021 US Open champion was distraught.
Fast forward eight months and Medvedev is riding high.
The former world No.1 enters the 2023 US Open semifinals in New York like a big-wave surfer on the shoulder of a 10-foot wave. The 27-year-old now has five titles to his name this season, leads the ATP with 37 hard court wins, and is breaking serve with alarming regularity as he finds himself in the last four at Flushing Meadows for the fourth time in five years.
There’s a lesson in all of that, says Medvedev: tennis—like life—can change on a dime, so don’t hang your head when things go south.
“I try to find positive things, and the best positive thing about tennis, and this could be very well used in life, is that everything can change very fast,” the eloquent world No. 3 told reporters on Wednesday after his gritty straight-set victory over Andrey Rublev.
“This year in Australia is a big example,” Medvedev added. “I lost in the third round. I was feeling awful. First time out of the Top-10 in maybe three, four years. My game was not there. I was, like, oh, my god, I'm feeling bad about my tennis right now.”
Medvedev pushed forward, continued to put in the hard yards, and was rewarded again and again over the next five months as he locked up titles in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai, Miami and Rome.
It all started with a five-tournament stretch that saw him win four titles and lose in the final of another. Safe to say he wasn’t feeling bad about his tennis anymore.
“Five tournaments, four titles, something like this, and I'm on top of the world,” he recalled. “I'm like, wow, great feeling.
“That's how tennis is. I think that's how sometimes it can be in life, many things can happen, and you can be disappointed. Then the next day is a new day and something good can happen.”
In New York City, meanwhile, good things always seem to happen for the former world No.1. He improved his sparkling record to 28-5 on Wednesday by dismantling Rublev with a pugnacious performance that featured nine breaks of serve.
Medvedev’s confidence always seems high when he plays in New York, and 2023 is no exception.
“I'm playing amazing,” he said with a smile. “I said it on the court. I feel like starting from the third set against [ Christopher O'Connell in the second round], guys have been playing brutally good against me.”
The man who took Nadal to five sets in the 2019 final in Queens, then trumped Novak Djokovic in the 2021 US Open final, feels good about the way he has responded to the many challenges he has faced in New York.
Zoning opponents and brutal heat haven’t slowed down his march to the business end of his best major. And they give him hope that he can handle the challenges that lie in wait.
“Like today against Andrey, when he started the match, I think he won 10 points in a row and was hitting on the line,” Medvedev said. “I was like, okay, I'm going to have to be better than I am right now. It was the same pretty much every match. [Alex] de Minaur threw me off the court 6-2 [in the first set of their fourth-round match]. So I was like, okay, I need to be better.
“That's what I'm really proud of. Sometimes it's not easy to come back in the matches, to stay there with the tough conditions. Andrey and Alex are probably one of the best physical guys on tour, and I managed to make them suffer. I suffered myself also but I managed to make them suffer.
“All of this is good for the confidence, and it is good for next matches.”
