When we thought that no one could cough Novak Djokovic on the slopes of cement, Daniil Medvedev He came to the professional circuit to look him face to face and establish himself as the best hard on. It is a phrase that may sound forceful, but the data attest to this: we know of the gaps that his tennis has on natural surfaces, but the consistency and regularity that the Russian shows on any concrete track has no comparison in the circuit to today. Our friends from Ubitennis They decided to put all the numbers on the table since the Russian entered the top-10, a moment that coincides in the timeline with the return of cement to the circuit ATP (thanks to the North American tour of the second half of the year) in 2019 … and the numbers dictate the sentence.
Among all the statistics there is one that assumes a double-edged sword, one that dictates two coexisting realities. There is absolutely no one in the top-10 who relies so heavily on hard courts at the ranking level. The percentage of points that the Russian has achieved in cement relative to its total is simply outrageous: a 87,94% of the points in his classification are a consequence of his figures on hard courts, something that confirms his reliability in each tournament on this surface, but which reflects the importance for him to raise the level on clay and grass, especially in tournaments of Grand Slam, which could allow a more equitable distribution of these points.
What’s more, no one that he has won more than Medvedev. As far as quantity is concerned, the Russian accumulates 21 more victories than number one in the world: 92 wins for Djokovic’s 71, although the Serb has lost less and ends up with a better win / loss ratio (85.5% to Daniil’s 82.1%). However, when we speak of quantity we also think of titles … and there is no one capable of coughing Medvedev either. Since that magical summer of 2019, Daniil has taken the bag to 9 wound on fast tracks, with a fairly even distribution: 1 Grand Slam title, 5 Masters 1000 or ATP Finals category titles and another 3 lower category titles (ATP 500 or ATP 250). Novak stays very close, with 7 champion prizes, although he could only boast of having added one more Grand Slam than the Russian.
Against the best, the best
Another of the scales that usually tells us a lot about a player’s level is about their effectiveness when it comes to measuring themselves against the best. It is something that characterizes great champions, the ability to better measure hot moments against those who occupy the elite … and, on hard courts, Medvedev also does that better than anyone. The Russian possesses a record traced to that of Djokovic, exactly the same: a balance of 16-8 against top-10 players on this surface, indicating that it is slowly reaching its constant favorite status. It is a statistic that says much more than it seems: neither Zverev, nor Nadal, nor Tsitsipas nor Berrettini have accumulated a positive balance in this figure, since the difficulty of constantly measuring the best puts you close to the abyss more frequently.
In short, Medvedev has already shown how far he can go when the track is blue like the sea and the concrete welcomes him comfortably. Starting in 2022, it’s time for the world’s number two to make adjustments so that his game also shines on other surfaces, so that statistics like these become anecdotal and his color palette stops being monochromatic. As they would say on the networks lately … do it daniil do it.
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