Clay season depression has nothing on Daniil Medvedev as the Russian sets his goals clear with a revamped vision to success

World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev will be one of the few players who’d be sulking over the tennis season for the next few months. As the Golden Swing commences, the ‘hard court specialist’ will have a tough time getting good results on the surface.

To his credit, he won the 2023 Rome Masters dropping just one set and defeating the likes of good clay players like Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Holger Rune. But he lost in the first round of the French Open a few days later.

It was his fifth opening-round defeat at the Major event in seven appearances. As he gears up for the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters, the former World No. 1 talked about his feelings about playing on the surface. He was honest in declaring his dislike towards the surface but remaining motivated for good results.

Like, two, three years ago it was always the same before the clay (season), like, 'OK, let’s go,' motivation, excited and then I come on clay and then I’m like a little depressed for a couple of days and then I tried to handle this. Now this year, it’s just like, 'OK, it’s a change of surface; for sure you need to adapt your game and adapt your mentality some shots.' 

Said Medvedev, speaking in the press conference.

The Russian admitted that things changed during the match in either way. But that doesn’t bother him yet as he remains optimist about performing well on the surface.

But I’m trying to do my best and looking forward to the tournament. So far, it’s been very, like, calm and good work process? So I’m looking forward. In the match everything can change to the good or to the bad, so let’s see how it goes.

Added the Russian.

Medvedev‘s dislike for clay has been quite famous. He has been the face of many memes when it comes to playing on the surface. But his maturity in wanting to stay positive and try his best every year shows his growth as a player in the past few years which he would like to continue this year as well.

Daniil Medvedev continues the wait for his first opponent on clay this year

Seeded fourth in Monte Carlo, Medvedev has directly qualified into the second round. He now awaits the winner of the match between Gael Monfils and Jordan Thompson.

Earlier, he had signed up for doubles alongside compatriot Roman Safiullin but the duo lost in straight-sets in the first round. The pair lost to their compatriots Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov as the four Russians went head-to-head in Monte Carlo.

In singles, Medvedev has a fairly decent record in Monte Carlo as compared to other clay events. He suffered a first-round exit in 2017 when he made his main-draw debut at the event. He exited the event in the second round in 2018.

The Russian then made his best run at the tournament reaching the semi-finals in 2019. He was defeated by eventual runner-up Dusan Lajovic. As the 2020 edition was canceled due to the Pandemic, Medvedev skipped the event in 2021 and 2022 as well before making the quarter-finals in 2023.

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