Why Alexander Müller Will Have a Lot to Gain Against Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon

Like last year, when he beat Arthur Rinderknech in the first round before losing to Carlos Alcaraz on Centre Court, Alexandre Müller prepared for his Wimbledon with two tournaments on… clay. Incongruous? Rather logical, actually. Because last year, it paid off; he earned a lot of ATP points by chaining a semi-final and a title in Challengers, the second division of the circuit. “And besides, this year, if he had won his final in the first, in Lyon he would have defended all his points from last year and we might have skipped the next Challenger, still on clay, in Italy, in order to prepare for Wimbledon more calmly,” says Xavier Pujo, Müller’s coach.

“Defending the points” becomes a mission of the utmost importance when you are looking to the medium term and hovering around the 100th place in the world, like Müller at the moment. If he had not lost this Lyon final against Hugo Gaston, two weeks ago (6-2, 1-6, 6-1), he would have confirmed his presence at Flushing Meadows, at the end of August. “It’s a bit of a special period because Alex is playing well and winning a lot of matches but at the moment, he finds himself outside the cut for the next US Open, sums up Pujo. He is in a bit of a boring ranking zone (102nd this week). And then in Sassuolo, he came up against the guy who was going to win the tournament (the Dutchman Jesper De Jong). Afterwards, we preferred to go home, take a breather before resuming training… on hard courts.”

At stake: the top 100, the US Open and 170,000 euros

It was therefore somewhat forced that Müller made the strategic choice to arrive late on grass, “but as every time I come here, I play rather well,” emphasizes the 27-year-old player, “I tell myself that next year, if my ranking allows it, I will perhaps play ATP tournaments on grass before Wimbledon. On the trip, I sometimes have the impression of walking on eggshells, while I saw in the first round that Hugo Gaston (whom he beat on Monday, taking his revenge for Lyon, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6) was sending good slides. He defends much better than me on grass. But with my very flat backhand, I still have a game that corresponds well to this surface.”

“He still did four days of training on grass before the start of the tournament,” adds Pujo. “And even if he doesn’t particularly like this surface, he has evolved mentally in relation to his approach. He knows he can play well on grass. He has his serve which is annoying, he returns well, he is developing his forward game better and better, he really has arguments.”

Against Medvedev (5th), with whom he trained a handful of times when they both worked at the Elite Tennis Center in Cannes, Müller will have the opportunity to tick several boxes on Wednesday on the Centre Court. Reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time; knock out a Top 10 player for the second time, after Andrey Rublev (6th) at the last Masters 1000 in Rome and, therefore, confirm his return to the top 100 while ensuring his place in the main draw of the next US Open. All this without mentioning the fact of winning, in the event of a performance, the biggest prize money of his career, since 170,000 euros goes to those who qualify for the third round of Wimbledon this year.