Medvedev reacts during the match against Korda in Shanghai. ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES (EFE)
Daniil Medvedev uses the saying: If you don’t console yourself, you do it because you don’t want to. “The good thing is that I lost early, so now I have more time ahead of me…” said the Russian in the conference room after losing 7:6 (8) and 6:2 against in the round of 32 in Shanghai Sebastian failed Korda. Mr. met yours. Nobody expected this, considering that he is the player who has collected the most titles (4) and victories (43) on hard courts this season, and that he also performed well the previous week in Beijing Only Jannik was able to beat him. Sinner and in the final. His rival Korda, a great tennis player, was also not plagued by injuries. In no time at all, the Chinese tournament loses one of its big favorites and its last winner to date.
Despite the good moment, Medvedev traveled to Shanghai with a sprained ankle. A competitor of sensations and selective will – remember the nausea caused by the sand even though he reached the top in Rome this year – he complained before the second fight about the slowness of the court and also the balls. “It used to be probably the fastest tournament, but now I don’t know if this or Indian Wells is slower,” he addressed the organization. On his debut he drew against Cristian Garin, but against Korda he got tangled up after losing the tiebreak in the first set and exploded: a racket landed on the floor, accusations to his coach and a farewell. The scene is not new. For better or worse, Medvedev 100 percent.
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“I should have won the tiebreak, but I didn’t,” the Russian said after missing three chances to win the opening set. “I encouraged him [a Korda] So that he could play better and better mentally, I paid for it. I didn’t lose on the course, although the conditions probably didn’t help much. But no, I didn’t lose because of that. In fact, I was a little tired today, although sometimes when you lose and the game is so hard, you feel the tiredness more. It’s a Masters 1000 [el penúltimo del año]“So of course I wanted to do better,” complains the Muscovite, who is accelerating his ambition to finish the course as number one. Of course, the result is of no use to you at all.
For Korda, however, it is a great incentive to continue to gain self-confidence and get back into the swing of things after difficult months. He was sidelined for a quarter with his wrist and had to miss Wimbledon and the US Open over the summer, but he has recently made a splash again. The 23-year-old American is a promising player who hasn’t yet made the leap or gotten into the leadership bandwagon; Of course, his tennis is relatively superior to the records achieved so far. Today he is 26th in the rankings and only one small award appears in his record, namely the one he won in Parma two years ago. As the youngest finalist in Astana – he lost to Adrian Mannarino – the win against Medvedev is his first win against a top 5 player and Carlos Alcaraz, who was present in the stands this Sunday to spy on the Russian, takes it up a notch Knowledge. Unexpectedly, the course of the competition removes one of the major obstacles.
DAVIDOVICH LEAVES ALCARAZ ALONE
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This Sunday Alejandro Davidovich was also eliminated. The 24-year-old from Malaga lost to Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-2 and 7-5 (in 1 hour and 22 minutes), leaving Alcaraz as the only Spanish representative in the draw. After the rain the day before, the competition returned to normal and the name of the next obstacle for the Murcian was announced: Daniel Evans.
The Englishman benefited from the absence of Mikhail Kukushkin when the Kazakh was already behind 6:2 and 3:0. He and Alcaraz have faced each other three times so far and the one from El Palmar has signed a full score: 3-0. This year they met in Barcelona and recently in New York, where the Birmingham team managed to snatch a set.
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