Medvedev:
Unusual Way to the Top
Matt Cronin

There was a time a few years ago Daniil Medvedev couldn't find a solution for his game. The 25-year-old Russian is 6' 6" and no player that tall had won a Grand Slam -- until he did it a couple of months ago at the US Open.
Like a lot of tall players, he could hit the ball big and play offense. But unlike a lot of tall players, he could also run and play defense. He had loose, unorthodox swings, sending the ball low and flat across the court.
It was hard for him to understand the way he should play in today's game, where players like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic dominated by winning long baseline rallies and others occasionally broke through with big-serving, first-strike performances.
Slowly, though, the clever, dogged Medvedev, who moved to Paris to train in 2017, began to find the answers. He started to combine different strategies, using his height to his advantage when serving, getting a lot of free points to hold often and easily.
Unusual
But in rallies, he pulled back on his power unless it was needed, his steady backhand and forehand getting the ball back deep and true and slowly building the advantage until he got a ball that landed slightly further up the court and he could pounce. If his opponent took control of a point, his reach allowed him to get the ball back from unusual positions with unusual stroke variations.
(Click Here to see Medvedev's forehand in the Interactive Forum. Click Here to see John Yandell's analysis of his forehand.)
He often hit the ball up the line, throwing his opponent off balance. Now, he's even coming up with a few dropshots, a shot he should improve as he uses it more in competition.
"Of course, if you have an easy ball, I try to make a winner. If you're running somewhere like crazy through the whole court, you just try to put it in," he said. "If the ball is behind me, I try to get it back. Sometimes I think that surprises the opponent. That's definitely part of my game."
He rarely gets tired, even when he is on court for three hours or more. He just keeps plugging. And if required, he can change up his strategy and start going for winners left and right. Now it's opponents who don't know the solution to his game.
Medvedev, now ranked No. 2, isn't the only tall player moving up in the men's game -- but he's the only one doing it in such an unusual way. His opponent in the final of the recent ATP Finals, No. 2 Alexander Zverev, is also 6' 6", but plays a more conventional big player game.
(Click Here to read Brian Gordon's take on height in pro tennis.)
Personality
His rise has also allowed him to show his personality -- a talkative person, he will entertain crowds with his gestures and complaints to the umpire during play, like he did during his breakthrough run at the 2019 US Open, and also this season at the Madrid and Paris Masters.
And off the court, he likes discussing the game and is willing to go into depth on his opponents and himself.
This season, Medvedev won 58 of his 72 tour matches, with four titles including winning his first Grand Slam against No.1 Novak Djokovic at the US Open. That is more than pretty good. He seemed to be within reach of his next goal -- No. 1 in the rankings.
But at the Paris Masters, Djokovic changed up his tactics, coming in regularly to defeat the Russian. And though Medvedev beat Zverev in the round robin at the ATP Finals, the German turned it around to defeat him in the final. So now Medvedev is looking for more solutions, saying he has to give Djokovic tougher volleys to hit and Zverev more returns back in court.
"It's interesting for me," he said. "Every time you know that he's going to try to do something new, you're going to have to be prepared for it. Same for them. Okay, he beat me this time, next time I'm going to try to be better, try to do something better than him and win."
That's what he's has done to get where he has, and during the offseason, my belief is he will keep thinking and learning to get even further.