Tennis
Medvedev, new number one
(Melbourne) The misfortune of some is the happiness of others: by losing in the quarter-finals in Dubai, Novak Djokovic left his world No.1 crown to Daniil Medvedev, the Russian with a strong and uninhibited character, who will have to now come to terms with this new status.
He will not ascend the throne of the ATP until Monday officially, but already, Daniil Medvedev could already be delighted Thursday to have won his duel from a distance with Djokovic.
“It’s not easy to play a match when you learn that during the day,” said the Russian, who qualified for the semi-finals in Acapulco after his 6-2, 6-3 victory over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
At 26, he put an end to the domination of four giants: for the first time since 2004, the head of the ATP escaped from one of the members of the “Big 4”, namely Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.
The native of Moscow will also find the Spaniard in the semis in Mexico, less than a month after their standoff in the final of the Australian Open which had turned in favor of the Majorcan in the 5and set when Medvedev had led 2 sets to 0.
The Russian, crowned at Flushing Meadows five months earlier, had then missed his chance to become the first player in the Open era (since 1968) to win two first Grand Slam titles in quick succession.
But during his fortnight in Australia, he had also been able to extricate himself from a few perilous situations, proof of a new maturity.
“I was mad! »
It was a bit by accident that the slender Russian (1.98 m) found himself with a racket in hand at 9 years old. While taking him to a swimming lesson, his mother Olga came across an advertisement for tennis lessons and his father Sergey, an IT engineer, thought the idea of enrolling him there was a good one.
Little did he know, then, that the snowshoes would cost him dearly. Because, when things escape him, his son turns out to be a real ball of nerves.
“I was mad! “, he confessed to the newspaper The Team in 2019. “You can’t even imagine what I was like until I was 19… I don’t know where it came from, but around 10 I started messing around on the court. »
“I was screaming, crying, breaking racquets… Everything you can imagine, I was doing. I never liked being like that. From the age of 14, I could lose a lot of games because of this attitude. And after each defeat, I dwelled on it for a long time, ”he said then.
After studying physics, mathematics, then commerce, this fan of esports, especially “FIFA”, ended up devoting himself entirely to tennis. And his parents with, since the family went to live with him in Antibes in 2014.
He was then 18 years old, joined the Elite Tennis Center in Cannes and met the man who is still his coach, the Frenchman Gilles Cervara.
tense middle finger
Medvedev was still an unknown in 2017, when he played his first Wimbledon and stood out there. Beaten to 2and turn, he throws coins at the foot of the chair umpire to challenge a decision.
But he ends up understanding that this attitude does not help him. Just before the 2019 US Open, the Russian explains that he uses a mental trainer to help him channel himself. “Often it works. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a match where, all of a sudden, I’m going to completely freak out. »
It just happened at the US Open that year. Facing the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, he qualified under the boos of Louis Armstrong, after snatching his towel from the hands of a ball boy, throwing his racket towards his chair and stretching a middle finger in front of the camera. “Thank you all, the more you whistle at me, the more energy you give me,” he said.
“I was an idiot. I’m working to become a better man on the court,” he later apologized. The whistles will only stop in the final, a titanic fight finally lost against Nadal.
The ice chilled the fire in the veins of Medvedev, who also drew on the heavy defeat in the Australian Open final in February 2021 against Djokovic, then against Nadal this year, to turn a corner.
After stealing the place of N.1 from the first, he can take “(s)revenge” in Acapulco against the second. And show before the hour who is the new king.
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Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.