Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev is one of the flagbearers of the new generation of tennis players who are trying to end the ‘Big Three’ dominance. The Russian recently gave an interview where he was asked to pick the toughest of the three players. While he gave equal respect to all three players, he also said that he has not faced Roger Federer at his prime so the assessment won’t be justified.
“All three are tough,” Daniil Medvedev said. “But when I played Roger I was a worse player than now, which doesn’t mean anything, because if I beat him now it wouldn’t be the same as when he was 25 years old. He remains an amazing gamer and an idol to everyone.”
The 25-year-old then explained it a little more by segregating them in terms of their favoured court and conditions.
“It’s actually easy to answer,” Medvedev continued. “Rafa at Roland Garros, Djokovic in Australia and Roger at Wimbledon.”
While the Russian has pulled off some decent results against Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, he has not managed the same against Federer. Medvedev has lost to the Swiss maestro in all three of their meetings starting with Miami 2019, Basel 2018 and Shanghai 2018.
Coming to the newer generation of talented players, Medvedev heaped praises on some of them and felt that they are the ones who will carry the sport forward. “Felix (Auger-Aliassime), Jannik (Sinner), Denis (Shapovalov) have great potential,” Medvedev said. “For the rest, it is difficult to say, because I do not have enough arguments to do it and if I do they will say that I said this or that thing.”
The 25-year-old will start his clay-court season with the Mutua Madrid Masters. He even had Monte Carlo and Barcelona on his schedule but failed to take the court as he tested positive for COVID-19.
Ahead of the event he spoke to the media and was honest in addressing that his playing style does not suit the clay court and that is why his records are that great on this surface.
“I don’t think it will change, to be honest. It’s just about playing on clay,” Medvedev explained. “I think my shots, my movement and my physical appearance doesn’t suit clay.”
