Daniil Medvedev 'one of the most underappreciated players ever'

February 1, 2024

ATP Tennis Players, Australian Open, Daniil Medvedev, Tennis News

Daniil Medvedev ‘one of the most underappreciated players ever’ claims former US Open champion

Daniil Medvedev became the first man in the Open Era to lose two Grand Slam finals from two sets up last week, but Andy Roddick has defended the Russian and backed him to be a future ‘Hall of Famer’.

Medvedev had already played three five set matches prior to the Australian Open final, coming back from two-sets-to-love down against Emil Ruusuvuori and Alexander Zverev.

However, he was on the receiving end of a comeback defeat in the final, being defeated by Jannik Sinner to lose his second Australian Open final in this manor.

Despite this, Roddick has jumped to the defence of the former No.1, “I know we always celebrate the winner and people are gonna knock Medvedev for being up two sets [and he] let it go – that’s trash if you do that. Because that’s in no way representative of what he did this entire tournament and what frankly he’s done for five or six years.”

Roddick is so passionate in his argument about Medvedev that he backed the 27-year-old as a better player than himself, “One of the most underappreciated players ever. And I’ll throw myself under the bus on this one. Twitter the other day, there’s some conversation going and I get looped in and they’re going, someone said, ‘Medvedev’s the best player ever that has one Slam.’ And I was the answer of the counter.

“And I’ll just tell everyone right now, he’s better than I ever was. He has 20-something-odd titles. He’s won however many Masters Series events, one World Tour Finals, has been No.1 in the world, oh by the way – beat Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam final.”

The American added, “[He] Has put himself there, I mean he’s been in back-to-back Grand Slam finals. This guy is better. If anyone calls him a ‘one Slam wonder’, they’re idiots and don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Medvedev’s 2024 Australian Open final defeat to Sinner was his fifth career Grand Slam final defeat, with his only victory coming at the 2021 US Open against Novak Djokovic.

Although Medvedev has a poor major final record, Roddick does not believe that any of these losses were his fault, “I’ve never left a final watching Medvedev and thought he’s blown it or given it away.”

Roddick continued, “He makes someone earn it every single time. He’s played Rafa [Nadal] twice, Novak twice and an in-form Sinner. It’s just the way it goes. I lost four finals and won one. Sometimes you just come up against someone better on the day.

“We’re acting like this one’s going to be the thing that breaks him, but he’s done it before and has come back extraordinarily. I’m not worried about him showing up and being at the business end of every hard court Slam over the next couple of years and, personally, I’d love to see him win another one. He has beaten all the best players on the biggest stages and is no doubt a Hall of Famer in his own right.”

I gave it everything but it wasn’t enough tonight. Congrats to @janniksin. Thank you Melbourne and look forward to seeing you next year???? pic.twitter.com/N0y3Xocfyw
— Daniil Medvedev (@DaniilMedwed) January 28, 2024

Medvedev will look to bounce back from his Australian Open disappointment in two weeks time at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam, before heading to the Middle East for tournaments in Doha and Dubai.

Inside the baseline…

It probably is a fair comment from Andy Roddick to suggest that Daniil Medvedev is underappreciated, which is probably why the Russian seemed to go under the radar at the Australian Open until the latter stages. However, in some ways this might help the former No.1, as the pressure is often more focussed on his rivals rather than himself. It will be interesting to see how he handles this defeat, as the Australian Open final defeat to Rafael Nadal definitely impacted the remainder of Medvedev’s 2022 season.

Daniil Medvedev career achievements

With Roddick heaping praise on Medvedev after his Australian Open final defeat, we at Tennishead wanted to look back at some of his best career achievements:

Career-high Ranking: No.1 (16 weeks)

Current Ranking: No.3

Career titles: 20

Grand Slam titles: 1 (US Open 2021)

Grand Slam Finals: 5 (Australian Open 2021, 2022 & 2024, US Open 2019 & 2023)

Masters 1000 Titles: 6 (Cincinnati 2019, Shanghai 2019, Paris 2020, Toronto 2021, Miami 2023 & Rome 2023)

ATP Finals Best Result: Won (2020)

Davis Cup Best Result: Won (2021)