Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak across the planet, most sporting events were forced to be suspended. In tennis, the ATP Tour and Wimbledon were canceled, and the rankings were frozen. However, Grand Slams will finally be making a return with the US Open on August 31, 2020. With big names like Rafael Nadal and Wawrinka already out of the competition, it’s an excellent opportunity for other top rankers to shine. World number five Daniil Medvedev being one of them.
Russian chief confident about Daniil Medvedev
According to Russian Tennis Chief Shamil Tarpischev, Medvedev is fully ready and fit to take part in Flushing Meadows. Maybe, he can claim his first Grand Slam after being defeated by Nadal in the final just last year.
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“Taking into account the fact that he was in France since the beginning of the pandemic and had an opportunity to train at a court together with his coach, he must be in good shape in comparison with other players.
“He could perform well at the US Open. But it’s too early to make any predictions because we don’t know the physical shape of other players.”
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(Note that the quotes have been translated using Google Translate)
According to a recent interview in ATP, he proclaimed that he is extremely dedicated to tennis and aspires to be better in each match. Apart from his skills, he puts extra attention on emotional resilience.
“Every one-on-one sport is all about mentality. Every tournament that you play, to win it you need to win five matches against five real guys. All of them want to win this tournament. You need to be stronger than them.
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“You need to break each of these guys mentally every match and that’s really tough, especially in [the] semi-finals and finals where you play top players and they try to break you and they are better at it. It’s only you against your opponent.”
Last year, he claimed two ATP Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Shanghai. He made his first Grand Slam final appearance in US Open and reached Number 4 in world rankings.