New Record
Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev again took first place in the new ATP rating released Monday. Thus, as the world’s first racket, he has already spent ten weeks, a national record.
Previously, only three Russian tennis players managed to reach the top of the ranking. Pioneer Yevgeny Kafelnikov took six weeks, Marat Safin took ninth, and now the record has fallen.
Is it time to consider whether it is now possible to call 26-year-old Medvedev the greatest tennis player in the country’s history?
Since the rating was created, only 27 players have led, and Daniil Medvedev is already in 19th place in terms of time to top, and he should soon surpass the German Boris Becker (12) with the American. Andy Roddick (13).
At the same time, the comparison with Kafelnikov and Safin is complex and ambiguous. For example, both legends of Russian tennis won two singles Grand Slam tournaments, and Kafelnikov also won four majors in doubles, but this has nothing to do with individual rating.
Kafelnikov is way ahead of his followers in single titles. While he has 26 trophies in his career, Safin has 15 in his collection and Medvedev has won 13 trophies so far.
But at the same time Kafelnikov did not receive a single Master, Safin won them five times, and Medvedev already has four victories in such tournaments.
Kafelnikov has an Olympic gold medal, but Medvedev became the second Russian man to win the Final Tournament of the Year, and the first was Nikolai Davydenko, who never reached the title of the world’s first racket.
Interestingly, Medvedev is the best of the legendary trio in terms of winning percentage – 70%. Kafelnikov could answer with 67%, while Safin won only 61% of his career matches.
controversial season
Medvedev became the world’s first racket in 2022, but the season will be uncertain for Daniil, at least. The Russian has not yet won a single championship.
He started the year very cheerfully and was incredibly close to his second slam win in a row. However, in the Australian Open final, Nadal was leading 2-0 in sets, first allowing Rafael Nadal to return to the game and then succumbing to the attack of the great Spaniard.
This defeat greatly upset the situation of the Russians, who were very disappointed in the finals due to the reaction of the stands and embraced Nadal enough to be greeted with joy in every mistake of his opponent.
Having fallen into a psychological pit, Medvedev later found himself in a functional pit. Interestingly, Serbian Novak Djokovic, who was expelled from Australia for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, became the world’s first racket in many respects as he lost 2000 points at the Australian Open. That’s when the Serb was injured and lost more points.
In addition, Daniil Medvedev was helped by the ATP’s decision to deprive Wimbledon of ratings points, where Russian and Belarusian players were never allowed. But Djokovic won the tournament.
Medvedev himself, however, had a very strong turf segment and made it to the finals at Halle and ‘s-Hertogenbosch, but was lower in the decisive match in both cases.
As a result, he is almost a thousand points ahead of the German Alexander Zverev, who is currently in second place in the standings, and the position of Medvedev cannot be called accidental.
Fight at the end of the year
No Russian tennis player has ever finished a particularly prestigious season in first place. The current first issue of the rating, of course, has a chance for this success, but it will be difficult to achieve.
On the one hand, Zverev, who is second in Roland Garros, has broken his ligaments and will not be able to compete as he still has to defend more than half of his rating at the end of the season.
Djokovic, who is already three thousand points behind, also apparently won’t be fighting to get back to the top just yet, because in the absence of a coronavirus vaccine, he will not be able to play in tournaments in Canada and the USA and will be there. two Masters and Open, here besides the Serb you have to defend 1200 points from last year’s final.
But Medvedev will have the hardest time, as he will have to defend up to 5200 points, which is two-thirds of his current rating in the last part of the season!
True, Daniil Medvedev was already in a similar situation a year ago. Then he had to defend more than 6,000 thousand points overall after Wimbledon and almost completely coped with the task.
The thing is, the hard part of the year is her talent. Tournaments held on comfortable grounds coincide with reaching the top of the form for him, which leads to successful results. He won the Masters at the Canadian and Open last season and made it to the Finals.
If everything grows together with form and courage this year, perhaps the Russian will be able to maintain its position.
The other thing is that Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaras, the fourth and fifth rackets of the world, who are just under three thousand points, will have to defend about a thousand points each.
But there’s also the unfading, unbending Nadal. Now he is in third place in the standings, 2,610 points behind the first point and will only defend 545 points, he has hardly played in this part of the season due to injuries since last year and since last year.
So in the fight for the first racket title at the end of the season, Nadal appears to be the favorite, but Medvedev still holds his own destiny.
“Looks Unreal”
While commenting on Medvedev’s success in a conversation with socialbites.ca, famous domestic tennis player Andrei Chesnokov speculated whether the current number one rating could be considered the greatest in the history of Russian men’s tennis:
“There was one such player, Marcelo Rios. He was first in the world, but did not win a single Grand Slam tournament. Can it be called the greatest? But Medvedev already owns the US Open. I do not know. It is unreal to be first in the world at least once!”
Chesnokov believes that it will not be easy for Medvedev to maintain the first line at the end of the year.
“First, because he has to defend points at the US Open. He will suddenly land somewhere in one of the first circles. That’s minus two thousand points! Look what rating it will have then,” said the expert.
– I think it will be extremely difficult for him to spend this half of the season. He will have to prove that he is the first. When Safin took first place and held the lead for nine weeks, Gustavo Kuerten overtook him at the Masters because he won the final. Safin came second in the world at the end of the season. But if Kuerten had not won that final, Marat would have held the first streak much longer. Therefore, all these ratings are still somewhat relative.
If you look at Federer, Djokovic and Nadal in all their glory, it seems like something unreal. Therefore, the fact that Russian tennis is in the first place for even one week is a tremendous achievement.
If we talk about Daniil Medvedev, he is currently the leader of the rating and one of the best players in the world. I don’t know how long it will last, but I think he’s better than anyone right now.”