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ANALYSIS – Daniil Medvedev reinvents the rest

In the last US Open, many were surprised by the position of the rest of the Daniil Medvedev. The Russian has been putting this strategy into practice for several years now, but with the bombshell hit by Daniil in the last Grand Slam of the season, there were many who wondered how it was possible for a guy without top spin shots to be able to subtract. from so far back, something that tennis players with a lot of topspin like Nadal or Thiem tend to do. What they may not know is that Medvedev has given one more turn of the screw to the rest blow.

In today’s tennis, where the serve is so important and where more and more players are coming out with a tremendously powerful serve, it is very important to have a good strategy when subtracting. It is vitally important to work on this aspect of the game and it is an important part of a tennis player’s success. Novak Djokovic has based his superiority in recent years supported by a tremendously effective rest, doing a lot of damage with the second rival serves, but also, returning like crazy the first ones that came to him. Or Rafa Nadal himself, who on the ground there is no one who overshadows him and he always ends up leading the statistics to the rest.

Medvedev’s tactic has an appellation of origin stamp. There is no other tennis player of his profile (1.98m tall, flat shots) who is capable of doing what he does. A strategy forged several years ago, he has been polishing it until he ends up making his rivals despair. Currently, Daniil is a stone in the shoe for anyone. Not only because of his tremendous serve and the few options he leaves when he serves, but because of how uncomfortable it is when subtracting.

Opelka e Isner ni le tosieron

In the last Masters 1000 in Canada, the Russian lifted the title by beating Isner and Opelka in two sets, giving them seven breaks in total. It proves more than notorious that we are facing an expert tennis player to the rest, even undervalued, since we would always put others as better receivers ahead of Daniil. Nothing is further from reality. We are facing a beast when it comes to the rest.

His position on the track, the key to everything

Federer usually stands very close to the baseline to subtract. Even with the second services, it impacts the rest on the court. Djokovic is usually one to two meters behind the line, the same position as Tsitsipas or Zverev. Rafa Nadal or Thiem are positioned a little beyond four meters, but Medvedev still goes much further. It exceeds five meters from the baseline and even touches six on occasion.

By getting so far back, opponents can hit you less as you have more reaction time to subtract. No matter how hard you throw at him, he will have time to return the ball. Only his open side is more exposed, which with a cut serve would have more difficulties, but even in those situations he is able to reach since the length of his arms allows him to reach almost impossible balls.

With this, what Daniil does is to leave the greatest virtue of many tennis players to nothing and put the ball into play to enter an exchange from the bottom, right there where Medvedev is much better than the vast majority of players. Basically, it destroys the opponent’s strong point to place the point where it suits him best.

One might think that if the strategy works so well, why don’t others follow it. The funny thing about it is that this strategy is better suited to those who hit topspin, but Daniil is able to subtract with fairly flat shots. That is to say, it innovates in the way we knew to subtract with this tactic and proposes a very uncomfortable type of ball, since it does not come with too much power (often yes) nor too dead, but yes, very deep. It is a ball that causes the opponent to be the one who prints the power or must defend himself and since it comes so flat and so deep, he must move backwards to do so and hit in a complicated position.

Possibly, as the months go by, we will see more and more other tennis players with a similar profile (tall and powerful flat shots) following a tactic similar to Daniil’s. The Russian may have paved the way for many others, making it clear that you can also do a lot of damage to the rest if you are two meters tall.

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