Madrid [Spain], April 24 : It's not a secret that Daniil Medvedev has openly expressed his dislike for clay in the past and the World No. 4 had struggled to adjust a bit on the surface en route to claiming a 29-27 tour-level career record.
However, the 28-year-old has grown out of that phase as the No. 4 player won his maiden tour-level title on clay in 2023 in Rome and is excited to build on that success in the 2024 season at the upcoming Madrid Open.
"I'm honestly feeling good. I feel this every year, more and more when I go to clay courts. When I say enjoy, I know that my game is a little bit more limited than on hard courts in terms of what I can do. And in terms of if I play a good match on hard courts, I know that 90 per cent of the matches I'm going to win," Medvedev said as quoted by ATP.
"On clay court, that is not the case. Every match is 50/50 I would call it. But I know what we can do. I have to do from my side what I want to do and I'm trying to do it and I feel confident about it, so I'm feeling good. I love the city, it's great, so I'm happy to come back here," he added.
Medvedev arrived in Madrid second in the ATP Live Race To Turin and reached finals at the Australian Open and in Indian Wells this year.
"I'm enjoying clay more and more. I have good results, and good victories, and I feel like I can do big things on clay. I want to try to win more tournaments like I did last year in Rome, try to do better in Rome and Roland Garros and for this, I need to play well here in Madrid," Medvedev added.
Medvedev added Frenchman Gilles Simon to his coaching team and the World No. 4 provided details of the team's working relationship two months into their partnership.
"He tries to bring something to my game, which maybe I thought of, but didn't understand how I should bring it on the court. And he explains how I can do it and for me then it's important because during the match you don't have time to think too much. It's more of a reaction. So I have to be very smart to not overthink what he says. Overthink it on practice, maybe, but not overthink it during the match," Medvedev said.
"And I feel like in Monte-Carlo, because for sure we talked a lot about playing, he was there in Monte-Carlo before the tournament, I maybe thought too much about, 'OK, next shot, what do I do?' Where I actually had to play more. It is very interesting and for the moment I think it's working great. I'm looking forward to learning more things," the World No.4 said.
Medvedev will face Christopher O'Connell or Matteo Arnaldi in his opening match on Friday.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor