Daniil Medvedev is not a title defense man
Daniil Medvedev (ATP No. 4) has won his 19th tour title in Miami. So far, so nice - if there weren't a crazy statistic about it.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Apr 03, 2023, 05:42 pm
Daniil Medvedev rocked the early hard court season of 2023: After a stuttering start to the year, he turned up the heat from February, winning in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai and now in Miami. In Indian Wells he had previously reached the final.
The win in Miami was the 19th tournament win of his career; Medvedev has now not only reached all the finals in the world's major hard court tournaments (Grand Slams, ATP Finals, ATP Masters tournaments). But also an unusual statistic: Medvedev won all 19 tournaments at a different event. Like: Sydney, Winston-Salem, Tokyo (2018), Sofia, Cincinnati, St. Petersburg, Shanghai (2019), Paris, ATP Finals (2020), Marseille, Mallorca, Toronto, US Open (2021), Los Cabos , Vienna (2022) and Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai, Miami (2023).
Medvedev can expand his series - if, yes, if...
So "Meddy" is not a man defending his title. Medvedev, the old statistics friend, will still love these statistics - even though he faces a problem: If he wants to continue playing successfully, success in a tournament that has already been won cannot be avoided in the long run.
In the coming weeks, however, he could – theoretically – continue to tinker with it: if he hits the sand. It's not really the hard court friend's favorite surface, as Miami final opponent Jannik Sinner pointed out with amusement in his speech at the award ceremony. On the contrary: Medvedev celebrated 18 of his 19 successes on hard court. Only in 2019 was he reasonably close on the red ashes: In Barcelona he lost to Dominic Thiem in the final (4: 6, 0: 6).
Should Medvedev unexpectedly mutate into the king of ash in the coming weeks, the crazy statistics could be extended. And otherwise: that leaves the lawn. Here he had only won in Mallorca in 2021. All other events would still be within reach for the man who (so far) does not tend to repeat wins.