The planet of tennis has been mired in a curious contradiction for years, a perfect synthesis of what the human being is: the desire to see how the Big 3 it is perpetuated in power and the need for new faces to emerge that put them in trouble. They are the two apparently contradictory feelings that we have all had at some point and that, until now, had not been seen as impossible to complement each other. And it is that something has always been missing in the great talents that have emerged lately, but what it transmits Daniil Medvedev when he is inspired, it is something that no other previous aspirant has managed to convey.
It does what it wants, when it wants and how it wants. This is Medvedev, a guy easily decipherable on the track. With a glance, a gesture, he is able to hide every hint of emotion, seeming to resemble a robot, but the flame of ambition is also clearly perceived, the state of maximum concentration of which only he and his increasingly frequent emotional ups and downs, they can get you out. And it is that Daniil has the ability to raise his level before the greats and to find a kind of prolonged tennis orgasm when things start to go well for him. This is clear from some of the statistical data emanating from their classification at the end of the Open de Australia 2021.
Daniil Medvedev accumulates a total of 20 consecutive victories, with 12 consecutive wins against top-10 players
The streak started in the Rolex Paris Masters 1000 2020, a tournament to which he tiptoed after a season in which he had not achieved great results. At the 2020 US Open, he wore something lacking in that unique special spark that he can treasure and came face to face with clay, a surface that is part of his nightmares. But something clicked in the Gallic city after losing to Kevin Anderson in Vienna. It was precisely a withdrawal by the South African in the first round of the Parisian event, which started this streak.
From there, not even the best have been able to stop him: Diego Schwartzman, Alexander Zverev twice in a row, Novak Djokovic, Diego Schwartzman again, Rafael Nadal (coming back from a match in which the Spaniard served to win), Dominic Thiem , and already in 2021, again the Argentine, again the German, Matteo Berrettini and now Stefanos Tsitsipas. As if this were not enough, of the current 10 members of the top-10, Medvedev has beaten everyone since November 2020 except Roger Federer, logically.
Daniil Medvedev has now defeated EVERY current top 10 player (except for a sidelined Federer) since last November.
1. Djokovic x1
2. Nadal x1
3. Thiem x1(4. Medvedev)
(5. Federer)6. Tsitsipas x1
7. Beasts x3
8. Rublev x1
9. Schwartzman x3
10. Berrettini x1– Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) February 19, 2021
In many of those encounters, he showed an absolute sufficiency, an insulting superiority over other players who fight for the same objectives as him, while in others he managed to do a memorable survival exercise without great fuss, simply with that feeling that he transmits of inviolability when it clings to the track, when it becomes an insurmountable wall. These are the players with the most consecutive wins over top-10 players:
- Roger Federer: 24
- Novak Djokovic: 17
- Rafael Nadal: 14
- Thomas Muster: 12
- Pete Sampras: 12
- Daniil Medvedev: 12
In case of winning the title in the Open de Australia 2021, would increase that streak to 13, as well as consecutive victories. Medvedev already wowed the world with a few months of absolute clairvoyance at the end of 2019, when he posted a 29-3 record from the end of Wimbledon to the start of the Masters 1000 in Paris. But his losses were interspersed preventing him from reaching a figure like the current one, of 20 consecutive wins. These are the tennis players with the most matches in a row won consecutively:
- Novak Djokovic: 43
- Roger Federer: 41
- Rafael Nadal: 32
- Andy Murray: 28
- Juan Martin del Potro: 23
- Daniil Medvedev: 20
But perhaps the most amazing thing of all is to recognize in Daniil Medvedev that man called to lead world tennis for his ability, at just 25 years old, to present a positive balance in confrontations against top-10 players. Taking into account that none of the other young tennis players called to a supreme goal, including Dominic Thiem, have achieved something like this, this data must be highly valued:
From having a balance of 9-19 to 21-19. In just four months. Medvedev, the ‘bogeyman’ of this generation https://t.co/duVZB8JoGG
— Fernando Murciego (@fermurciego) February 19, 2021
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