Daniil Medvedev once again shone on the tennis courts. The Russian in the second half of February was so dispersed that he won the second tournament in a row. After his success in Rotterdam, he continued his winning streak at the ATP 250 in Doha, defeating the legendary Briton Andy Murray (6:4, 6:4) in the final. More importantly, Daniil quickly regained his self-confidence and secured himself in the top 10 of the world ranking. The triumph in Doha helped him climb to seventh place, overtaking Rafael Nadal. Yes, and a return to the top 5 in the near future is very likely. To do this, it would be nice to continue the winning streak in Dubai, where, in addition to Daniil, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov will perform.
Feeling of confidence
Medvedev has already won nine matches in a row. Although not all of them were simple. In Doha, he passed in the opening meeting of Liam Broady, in the quarter-finals only at the end of the third set, he put the squeeze on Christopher O’Connell, and in the semi-finals he beat Felix Auger-Aliassime for the second time in February. The final against Murray turned out, despite the score, difficult and nervous. However, in the endings of both games, the Russian perfectly coped with nerves. “After the titles, it seems that the winning spirit is back and you are able to win big tournaments. It’s all about confidence, which, however, can disappear after one defeat. But now I feel great and I will try to keep this feeling as long as possible, ”commented tennis on his success at a press conference.
“It was enough for Medvedev to win one title to feel confident in the game,” Elena Vesnina, the Olympic champion and former world No. 1 in doubles, confirmed to Izvestia. – Now it is clear that he is coming out of a state where something did not work out for him at the end of last year. These two titles are very revealing, important and necessary for him. Everyone was worried that he had fallen out of the top ten, they made a tragedy out of it, but for a player of this level – one tournament, and he will return to the top level. A few well spent stretches of the season, and he may well return to the first line of the rankings. Daniel is on the right track.
Thanks to the victory in Doha, Medvedev climbed to third place in the ATP championship race, behind only Australian Open 2023 finalists Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Daniil may face the leader of the world ranking Djokovic as early as this week at the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai, they are facing each other already in the semi-finals. In the first round, the Russian can warm up on the 22-year-old Matteo Arnaldi, who made his way to the main draw through qualification.
Also, the first racket of Russia Andrey Rublev will play in Dubai. On Monday, the 25-year-old Muscovite fell from fifth to sixth in the ATP rankings (lost points for missing last year’s tournament in Marseille, and stopped at the quarter-finals in Doha). So far, Andriy’s season is not going well: he lost five out of ten matches at the start of the season. This is Rublev’s worst start to the year since 2016, when he also lost half of his first 10 matches.
In the UAE, there is a good chance to rehabilitate, given that Andrey took the title here last year. Then he managed to beat a couple of uncomfortable opponents (Daniel Evans, Hubert Hurkach), and in the final to surpass the main sensation of the week – Jiri Vesely (the Czech then crushed Marin Cilic, Roberto Bautista Agut, Denis Shapovalov and Djokovic himself).
In Dubai, for the first time in a month, an official match will be held by Karen Khachanov. Before that, he withdrew from two tournaments in a row – in Rotterdam and Marseille. Recall that Khachanov reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open – 2023, this is the best result among Russians in both men’s and women’s grids. In the match for reaching the final, Karen lost in four sets to Tsitsipas. For Khachanov, this was the second semi-final in a row at the Grand Slam tournaments.
“He didn’t want to play indoors,” Shamil Tarpishchev, president of the Russian Tennis Federation, explained Khachanov’s month-long pause to Izvestia. “His team decided it was better to concentrate on clay. He has no injury. This is purely a workaround. It increases the training system in terms of getting physical activity to reach a good functional level. He is trying to achieve the maximum in terms of preparation.
In Dubai, the sixth seed got a pretty good net. In the event of a victory over Botik van de Zandshulp, Khachanov will play with Michael Yimer or lucky loser (Benjamin Bonzi withdrew from the tournament).
Plus one
Last weekend, the trophy in the UAE was taken not only by Medvedev, but also by our girls. Veronika Kudermetova and Lyudmila Samsonova became the champions of the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai in doubles. In the final, they defeated Latisha and Haojing Zhan from Taiwan. For Kudermetova, this is the sixth doubles title in her career (and the third thousandth). Samsonova – the first trophy in a pair. “I followed the results of our girls, they had a very strong tournament,” Andrey Chesnokov, ex-ninth racket of the world, told TASS. “They both have good serves, they play great on the back line. They suit each other, they play powerfully. They can really become the first couple in the world and win tournaments, they have a very bright duet, they should win one of the Grand Slam tournaments.
On Monday, February 27, Samsonova and Anastasia Potapova updated their personal rating records. Lyudmila moved up from 13th to 12th place, Linz champion from 29th to 28th. This week Potapova has a good chance to take another step towards the top 20. Igor Andreev’s ward, seeded under the third number, will start his performance in American Austin with a match against Elizabeth Mandlik.
Three more Russians will also play in the main draw of Austin: Anna Blinkova, Anna Kalinskaya and Varvara Gracheva. The last will have to start the tournament with the first seeded, Australian Open semi-finalist Magda Lynette.
