By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday April 2, 2023
A few weeks ago, when he was asked to speak about what made Daniil Medvedev such a tough challenge, Carlos Alcaraz started with a simple but effective description: “He’s a wall,” he said.
It’s true, no doubt. Medvedev has developed a reputation for being an incredibly savvy defender, one that consistently befuddles his opponents with his court coverage and court position. But being a wall isn’t the only thing that Daniil Medvedev does well. You don’t become one of the world’s best hard-courters doing just one thing.
Asked to explain what he felt was underrated about his game, the newly minted Miami champion told reporters that his capacity for aggression sometimes gets overlooked.
“I would say in a way my attacking skills [are underrated], because I know that I’m good in defense, and especially on the return games, I can be sometimes defensive and there are some points I win kind of by just putting the ball back and making the opponents miss, but on my serve I feel like I’m pretty aggressive all the time,” five-time Masters 1000 champion Medvedev said. “And on the opponent’s serve, sometimes when I see my good matches, if I make a good return, then from the position I’m at, I’m really fast to go forward and maybe attack the next one.
“So I think, yeah, this could be a little bit underrated in my game, the attacking skills I have.”
No doubt about it. Medvedev is not a one-trick pony. He cleverly works points in order to exploit his advantages. He transitions from defense to neutral to offense and back seamlessly and keeps his opponents guessing all the while. And when he’s serving he can be flat-out disruptive, serving big and clicking on serve-plus-one with the best of them.
That’s how he has been able to win 19 hard court titles in his career, and claim 24 of his last 25 decisions since February.
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