Medvedev Sharpening Slide in Quest for Clay Success

Daniil Medvedev has been sharpening his slide in an effort to find his clay-court footing.

Eighteen of Medvedev’s 19 career titles have come on his preferred hard courts with his other title, 2021 Mallorca, on grass.

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So how can Medvedev, who is seeded third in Rome this week, adapt his game to dirt?

The 2021 US Open champion said he’s working on improving his slide and playing with more spin to translate his baseline game to dirt.

“I think the sliding was always a problem,” Medvedev told the media in Rome. “After Madrid, after I lost, a couple days I practiced there I tried really a lot to focus on the sliding, on the movement. I felt like I improve in these couple of days.”

Miami Open champion Medvedev said one reason it’s tough to translate his game to clay is he rarely has training block time to practice on dirt.

“I always said the thing about clay is I don’t have enough time,” Medvedev said. “In Miami, you have three days, then tournament, tournament, tournament. You don’t have that much time to practice.”

The third-seeded Medvedev has a first-round Rome by and will play either Emil Ruusuvuori or Ugo Humbert in his opener.

So far, Medvedev says he’s pleased with his progress in Rome practice sessions.

“I was not missing many balls here these last two days. It was tough for my opponents,” Medvedev said. “Again, you never know. I say all this, but maybe first match is not the case. But is good to have some good practice. Yeah, I was really happy about it.”

Photo credit: Getty