Daniil Medvedev ‘not that concerned’ after first trophyless season in seven years
Daniil Medvedev has reflected on his season and rated it ‘six and a half out of 10’, after going without a title for the first time since 2017.
Medvedev played his last match of the season yesterday, losing in straight sets to Jannik Sinner to confirm his exit from the ATP Finals.
This meant that both Sinner and Taylor Fritz advanced from the Ilie Nastase Group, with Medvedev and Alex de Minaur being eliminated.
After finishing his 2024 season with a 69% win percentage, Medvedev reflected on his year, “Probably I finish No.4 in the world unless Taylor pulls a big upset, which is amazing. Why I need to say it? It’s amazing. In the sport that is that demanding with so many players, I want to be No.1 in the world, but I didn’t play well enough this year, by far, to be No.1 in the world. Jannik is playing much better. He proved it many times.”
The former US Open champion continued, “But I’m No.4 in the big tennis world. I’m super proud about that because, as I said, especially in the end of the year, I struggled throughout the whole year. Every practice, every match was a struggle for me. A lot of matches. Before I would feel I had the edge on the opponent and win it easy. Now I needed to win three sets, tie-breaks, breaks in the end of the set, et cetera.
“I would put it somewhere on six and a half out of 10, which a lot of work to do to be better, but still a lot of good memories also. Yeah, I’m looking forward for next season already.”
Medvedev began the year by reaching the Australian Open final, and was two-sets-to-love up against the aforementioned Sinner before being pegged back.
The Russian has only reached one final since then at Indian Wells, losing to Carlos Alcaraz, in his first trophyless season in seven years.
Despite this, Medvedev did not seem too concerned by this and suggested that the calibre of tournaments he played this year made winning titles more difficult.
“Yeah, about titles… I’m not that concerned,” said Medvedev. “As I say, every tournament is tough to win, but I could have gotten some different tournaments. I basically played three 500s this year and all the rest was Masters and Grand Slams.
“Of course, I want to win Masters and Grand Slams more than other tournaments. But maybe go to another tournament and win it. You never know. In general, I had some very good runs and some very bad tournaments. It’s okay for me.”
Medvedev will now finish the 2024 season as World No.4, unless either Taylor Fritz reaches the ATP Finals final or Casper Ruud claims the title.
Inside the baseline…
It has been a strange season for Daniil Medvedev, who has still had pretty consistent results at the biggest tournaments, but has just ended up losing to the likes of Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner on many occasions. Looking back to the Australian Open final, it is incredible to think how different Medvedev’s season may have been had he won one of the final three sets in his match with Sinner and claimed a second Grand Slam title.
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