Never shy of admitting his preference for hard courts over clay, Daniil Medvedev is cherishing his achievements on the latter this week at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
The third seed fell to a straight-sets quarter-final defeat against Holger Rune on Friday at the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event. Yet he leaves Monaco feeling good about adding two more wins to his Tour-leading tally for 2023, and Thursday’s battling third-round victory against Alexander Zverev in particular.
“It was not bad,” said Medvedev, who is now 31-4 on the season, of his run to the last eight in the Principality. “I beat good players on clay. Yesterday evening [against Zverev] was magic. It was very tough on clay. It’s not easy to win matches like this.
“[Rune] played very well. I could have played a bit better, but if we talk about clay again, I’m not as at ease as he is on clay. I believe he’s better on that surface, and I think in the following years he’s going to be very strong on clay. So overall, it’s very positive. There are other big tournaments coming up. We’ll see what I do there, but I’m very happy with this tournament in Monte-Carlo.”
Medvedev has spoken about the challenge of hitting through opponents on clay as effectively as he does on hard courts. The former World No. 1 is working hard to identify the best way to counter his rivals on slower surfaces.
“There are things I’m trying to change,” said the 19-time tour-level titlist. “I’m trying to change the directions and have a bit of more topspin, because if you play flat on clay, it doesn’t work, especially against the better players.
“I believe my game was not so bad [against Rune], except that he was more decisive in important moments and he feels when he needs to be aggressive or defensive. This is something I feel well on hard courts and not as well on clay. So, I’m not sure I can change that, but I will try. If one day I’m able to become a monster on clay, I’m happy.”
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After tasting defeat in his first ATP Head2Head meeting with Rune, Medvedev was full of praise for a player he believes possesses a natural ability on clay.
“He played good. He’s a great player on clay,” said Medvedev of the 19-year-old Dane, who reached his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros last year. “I feel like that’s the surface that suits him the best with his heavy topspin strokes. I think he’s a very dangerous player on clay for the years to come.”
The loss to Rune was just Medvedev’s second defeat in his past 28 tour-level matches. His red-hot run, which has included titles in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai and Miami, has propelled the 27-year-old to first place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.
On Monday, he will move within 2000 points of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, and Medvedev has fewer points to defend than both World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz across the rest of the European clay-court swing.