When Daniil Medvedev won the Italian Open, we were reminded that this former major champion knows how to play tennis on clay. However, is that reality a product of Medvedev simply being a great tennis player, a world-class competitor who has bounced back from a disappointing Australian Open loss to produce a strong 2023 season, or is it the product of Medvedev’s game benefiting in a unique way on clay?
When we are told (reasonably, I might add) to respect Medvedev’s clay game, the underlying message might seem to be — at least for some — that Medvedev gets more out of his clay-court tennis than many might first think. That point might not be wrong, and to be sure, I’m not going to contest it. What I will do, however, is point out that even if Club Med is able to turn himself into Club Mud — as he did in Rome — it will never be true that Medvedev’s game is rewarded on clay to the same degree his shots and stylings are rewarded on hardcourts. Medvedev’s hard, flat shots and medium-height strike zone are enhanced on hardcourts to a degree that clay courts won’t match.
Even if one accepts the claim that Medvedev’s clay game is underrated, it remains true that one would rather play Medvedev on clay than on cement, and that one would rather draw Medvedev at Roland Garros than Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic.
The idea that Medvedev was the favorite to make the final from the bottom half of the draw was not ludicrous or unreasonable — not at all — but the idea that he was a clear-cut favorite or heavy favorite always seemed like a reach. Club Med might have entered this tournament in a better position than Holger Rune or Casper Ruud to make the final, but even though one could make a compelling case to back up that claim, the bigger overall story was that Djokovic landed in Alcaraz’s half, not Club Med’s. That opened up the bottom half more than it paved a path for Medvedev.
Daniil Medvedev on clay — much like his loss to Thiago Seyboth Wild in Paris — is a study in competing tensions. One can acknowledge that he’s no slouch on clay (now with a Rome title to prove it), and yet one can still assert that he is weaker on clay than on hardcourts, and that his quality on clay is more a product of his quality as a tennis player, less as a performer whose strokes benefit from the surface itself. Medvedev deserves respect on clay, but not to the point that he gets elevated to the higher tier of the sport, with fellow competitors (Alcaraz, Djokovic) who are far more formidable on that surface.
The art of evaluation is nuanced. Discussing Medvedev on clay requires considerable attention to detail in tennis discourse.
Tennis with an Accent 