Medvedev, a brand new number one

The misfortune of some is the happiness of others: by losing in the quarter-finals in Dubai last week, 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 as his country is blacklisted in the world of sport after the invasion of Ukraine.

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Officially on the throne of the ATP on Monday, Medvedev puts an end, at 26, to the domination of four giants: for the first time since 2004, the head of the ATP escapes one of the members of the “Big 4“, namely Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.

“I was crazy!”

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, a computer 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 L’Equipe 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 doing anything 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 matches because of this attitude. And after each defeat, I dwelt 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 one who is still his trainer, 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 in the 2nd round, he throws coins at the foot of the chair umpire to contest 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 me, the more energy you give me“, he had launched.

«I have been an idiot. I’m working to become a better man on the courthe 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.

ATP ranking after the matches played on Monday:
1. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 8615 pts (+1)
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 8465 (-1)
3. Alexander Zverev (GER) 7515
4. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6515 (+1)
5. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 6445 (-1)
6. Andrey Rublev (RUS) 5000 (+1)
7. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 4928 (-1)
8. Casper Ruud (NOR) 3915
9. Félix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 3883
10. Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 3496 (+1)
Jannik Sinner (ITA) 3495 (-1)
12. Cameron Norrie (GBR) 3325
13. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 3020 (+1)
14. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2865 (-1)
15. Roberto Bautista (ESP) 2480
16. Pablo Carreno (ESP) 2220 (+1)
17. Reilly Opelka (USA) 2156 (+1)
18. Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 2121 (+1)
19. Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 2061 (+1)
20. Taylor Fritz (USA) 2010 (-4)