Ours are at the Olympics. Daniil Medvedev: an artist who plays tennis alone

Medvedev was born and lived in Moscow until the age of 18, after which he and his family moved to France. In his youth, he was able to enter the prestigious physics and mathematics lyceum “Second School” – one of the most powerful educational institutions in Moscow. He combined a serious schedule at school and tennis. After the ninth grade, he still left the lyceum, but then he was able to enroll in three universities at once, including the evening department of MGIMO. In addition to tennis, he was interested in chess, music, swimming, drawing and guitar.

He started playing tennis in the section of the capital’s Chaika swimming pool with the famous children’s coach Ekaterina Kryuchkova, who brought up Vera Zvonareva. Later he joined the club in the village of Mosrentgen in New Moscow and worked under the guidance of Igor Chelyshev and Ivan Pridankin until he left for France to the Jean-René Lisnard Academy, where Lisnard’s assistant Gilles Cervara became his coach.

At the junior level, Medvedev was regularly among the top four players in the country, which allowed him to receive a scholarship from the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin for talented Russian tennis players. However, Daniil did not achieve impressive success at major international tournaments. In early 2014, he reached his highest position in the junior rankings, taking 13th place.

After moving to France, Medvedev began competing in adult tournaments and won his first singles and doubles titles. He made his ATP Tour debut in Moscow, alongside Aslan Karatsev, at the 2015 Kremlin Cup. In 2016, he entered the top 100 tennis players in the world, finishing the year ranked 99th in the ATP rankings.

In an interview with , Medvedev admitted that since 2017 he had reconsidered his attitude towards tennis and his professional career. “I said to myself: ‘Let me try to concentrate a little more, listen to the coach a little more, do a little more physical preparation.'” From that moment on, the Russian’s results increased.

Already in January 2017 in India, Daniil reached the final of an ATP tournament for the first time in his career, but in the fight for the title he lost to the more experienced and titled Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut. This summer, Medvedev won his first “media” victory, eliminating Stan Wawrinka, then the third racket in the world, at Wimbledon. In 2018, Medvedev won his first ATP title in Sydney. In the same year, the Russian won the tournaments in Winston-Salem and Tokyo, reaching 16th place in the ranking.

However, the following year, 2019, was a decisive year for him. Already at the beginning of the season, Medvedev had beaten Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at a tournament in Brisbane. At the Australian Open, the Russian challenged world number one Novak Djokovic, but lost after three hours of play. In April, Daniil took revenge on the Serb in Monte Carlo. It is the rivalry with Djokovic that is considered the most important for him.

Since the summer, Medvedev has reached the finals of six consecutive tournaments, won two Masters – in Cincinnati and Shanghai, and also reached the final of the US Open. Following the results of a crazy 5-set match with the king of clay Rafael Nadal, in which Medvedev fought back with a score of 0-2, the Spaniard still won, but it was then that the Russian acquired the status of a world tennis star, and also entered the top four players in the ATP ranking.

Medvedev’s main victory so far happened on September 12, 2021, when the Russian defeated Djokovic in the US Open final. The Serb had a chance to win the calendar Grand Slam (victories in all four major tournaments of the season), but the Russian tennis player did not give a single set to the world’s first racket. Daniil became the first Russian Grand Slam winner since 2005, when Marat Safin won the Australian Open.

Thanks to his successful performance at the next Australian Open (reaching the final for the second time in a row), Medvedev became the third Russian player in history to lead the ATP men’s ranking. He remained the first racket of the world for three weeks, after which he again lost this status to Djokovic. And a week later, the Russian announced that he was temporarily suspending performances due to the appearance of a hernia and the operation associated with this diagnosis. Due to the break and uneven performances in the second half of the season, he finished the year seventh in the ATP ranking.

For the Olympic tournament in Paris Medvedev is one of the favourites. He has six Grand Slam finals to his name, as well as six Masters victories, including the clay-court tournament in Rome in 2023. The 28-year-old is experienced, highly motivated and in top form. He has already broken several of Evgeny Kafelnikov’s records and is certainly determined to join him on the list of gold medallists at the Games.

“I came to Tokyo with the motivation that it was some kind of ATP tournament. But in the end, I was very impressed by the atmosphere and life in the Olympic Village,” Medvedev told Supertennis. “Now I’m looking forward to repeating this experience. “It’s not for me to debate whether it’s good to participate as a neutral athlete, but I will go to the Games for myself and do my best.

Comment by the President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev for :

— Danya is the leader of our team, he can do everything on the court. I always say that on the court he is a philosopher. He thinks outside the box and can confuse anyone with his combinations when he is in a good mood and well prepared physically. At the last Olympics, Khachanov won silver in singles, now I would really like Daniil to perform at least as well. Medvedev is an artist who plays tennis alone. I think we will like him in Paris.

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