After winning the US Open, Daniil Medvedev is tipped into the first rackets of the world and is offered to be presented for a state award. The Russian won the Grand Slam tournament on September 12 and became the third Russian tennis player in history to do so. The 25-year-old athlete defeated Serb Novak Djokovic in the final. In the ITP rating, Medvedev is still the second racket in the world. However, after winning the US Open, he became one of the most titled tennis players in the country. What allowed Daniil Medvedev to achieve success so quickly? About this – Vladimir Rasulov.
Daniil Medvedev, in comparison with other world tennis stars, took up the racket relatively late. He first appeared on the court only at the age of six. Moreover, at first, his parents did not plan to connect their son’s life with sports. The boy began to go to the Moscow Region section, and in parallel, until the ninth grade, he studied at the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum. He graduated from high school as an external student and entered the Faculty of Applied Economics and Commerce of MGIMO. But he ended up leaving school to pursue a tennis career.
In March 2010, Medvedev won the Russian Under-14 Tennis Team Championship. In 2014, he moved to France with his family. There he continued to play tennis at the Academy of Antibes and four years later won the first title in the tournament of the Association of Professional Tennis Players. To achieve such progress Daniil Medvedev was largely helped by his human qualities, says the honored coach of Russia Boris Sobkin: “In life he is a calm, very educated, polite, well-mannered young man. The chess player is on the court and reads the opponent very well. Medvedev has a very high, not only tennis, IQ. Thinking player. Yes, some points in the technique could have been better, but I don’t know such a player, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, who has nothing to work on. “
But tennis lovers remember another trait of Daniil Medvedev. The Russian often played in international competitions very emotionally and, after failures, often broke his rackets on the court. In addition, the athlete could quarrel with rivals and even with spectators. From time to time it got from the Russian tennis player and the judges. For example, in 2017 at the Wimbledon tournament, Daniil Medvedev demanded to replace the referee, and after the defeat he threw a few coins in the direction of the tower. For this he was fined $ 14.5 thousand. However, the tennis player himself admitted in an interview that he was not very happy with his behavior: “In life I am a calm person. I don’t know why all my demons come out when I play tennis. Especially there were a lot of problems with behavior when I played at the junior level. I don’t want to lose because I lost my temper or lost concentration because of the fans or because of the referee. I want to lose because I was worse on the court than my opponent. “
Daniil Medvedev twice reached the Grand Slam finals before winning the US Open. However, in 2019 at the US Open, he lost the trophy to the Spaniard Rafael Nadal. And in February 2021 he lost to Serb Novak Djokovic in the final meeting at the Australian Open. It was not easy for Medvedev to maintain maximum concentration at such tournaments for a long time, but by September the Russian was able to psychologically prepare for the matches, and this is what helped him win, says the correspondent of the Kommersant Sports Department Yevgeny Fedyakov: “Of course, working with a psychologist who is at this tournament was present, and lately often travels with Medvedev, she said. He managed to maintain the maximum level of his play throughout the match. This is what he very often succeeded in at less significant tournaments and which he did not succeed due to psychology and a protracted five-set format at Grand Slam tournaments at decisive moments. “
Now Daniil Medvedev is the first racket in Russia. He has earned over $ 17 in prize money throughout his career. And recently the whole world learned that a tennis player is fond of video games. The Russian, after defeating Novak Djokovic, unusually noted his triumph: he suddenly fell on his left side on the court and stuck out his tongue. Medvedev later explained that it is called a “dead fish”, and this is how they celebrate winning a FIFA game on PlayStation.
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