Daniil Medvedev won the Dubai Tennis Championships without even taking to the court for the final.
His opponent, Tallon Griekspoor, picked up a hamstring injury during his semifinal win over Andrey Rublev.
The Dutchman hoped to recover in time for the final, but failing to do so, he withdrew hours before his title showdown with Medvedev.
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While it wasn’t the way Medvedev wanted to win the title, he’ll be pleased with his efforts in Dubai.
For the second time this year, the Russian looked a class above at an ATP tournament, and he knows exactly why.
With that knowledge at hand, Medvedev must now make some important adjustments to his schedule.
Daniil Medvedev needs to play tournaments on faster courts
After Medvedev defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semifinals, he was asked if he’d just delivered a ‘vintage’ performance.
“If you give me some fast courts like they were before, maybe I can do something like this!” said Medvedev.
“But there are not many courts like this on the tour anymore.
“It was like this in Brisbane, and in Brisbane I played well.”
On faster surfaces, Medvedev has won two titles this year, the Brisbane International and the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Medvedev is aware that his game is better suited to quicker courts.
Therefore, the Russian should now focus his schedule on tournaments played on faster surfaces.
According to ‘Tennis Abstract‘, the following tournaments were the 10 quickest and 10 slowest last year.
Top 10 fastest tournaments by court speed (2025)
| Rank | Tournament | Surface | Surface speed |
| 1 | Hellenic Championships | Hard | 1.45 |
| 2 | Swiss Indoors | Hard (i) | 1.44 |
| 3 | ATP Finals | Hard (i) | 1.40 |
| 4 | Hangzhou Open | Hard | 1.38 |
| 5 | Stuttgart Open | Grass | 1.38 |
| 6 | Queen’s Club Championships | Grass | 1.35 |
| 7 | European Open | Hard (i) | 1.34 |
| 8 | Moselle Open | Hard (i) | 1.34 |
| 9 | Hong Kong Open | Hard | 1.31 |
| 10 | Brisbane International | Hard | 1.27 |
Top 10 slowest tournaments by court speed (2025)
| Rank | Tournament | Surface | Surface speed |
| 1 | Tiriac Open | Clay | 0.43 |
| 2 | Laver Cup | Hard (i) | 0.55 |
| 3 | Monte-Carlo Masters | Clay | 0.55 |
| 4 | Hamburg Open | Clay | 0.57 |
| 5 | Barcelona Open | Clay | 0.57 |
| 6 | Italian Open | Clay | 0.60 |
| 7 | Bavarian International Tennis Championships | Clay | 0.64 |
| 8 | French Open | Clay | 0.68 |
| 9 | Geneva Open | Clay | 0.71 |
| 10 | Chile Open | Clay | 0.71 |
In 2025, Medvedev only played one of the top 10 fastest tournaments by court speed.
If he were to do so again in 2026, he’d simply be leaving points on the table.
Swapping out Vienna for Basel and Halle for Queen’s would be a good start.
Why choose to play on a slower surface when there’s a tournament offering the same number of points elsewhere?
The clay-court season is, unfortunately for Medvedev, unavoidable.
But when he can choose between quicker and slower tournaments on hard and grass, he must make smarter decisions.
Yes, he may be used to playing certain events and feel comfortable in those environments, but at this stage in his career, Medvedev needs to take a long, hard look at his schedule.
It’s unrealistic to expect Medvedev to win every fast hard-court event he plays, but if his Brisbane and Dubai form is anything to go by, he’ll certainly be a contender.
There are, however, limitations in the choices Medvedev can make.
As mentioned above, the 30-year-old cannot skip the clay-court season, nor can he miss the mandatory Masters 1000 events.
That’s an issue when looking at the court speed at the upcoming ‘Sunshine Double’ Masters 1000 tournaments
- Indian Wells – 0.73
- Miami Open – 1.17
Indian Wells, Medvedev’s next event, was the slowest hard-court tournament on the calendar last year (except for Laver Cup)…
Does Daniil Medvedev have any chance of winning Indian Wells?
In short, yes.
Despite Indian Wells having slower hard courts than anywhere else on tour, Medvedev has enjoyed plenty of success in California.
He’s a two-time finalist and reached the semis last time around.
Daniil Medvedev’s record at Indian Wells
- 2017 Indian Wells – Lost in 1R to Mikhail Youzhny
- 2018 Indian Wells – Lost in 3R to Pablo Carreno Busta
- 2019 Indian Wells – Lost in 3R to Filip Krajinovic
- 2021 Indian Wells – Lost in 4R to Grigor Dimitrov
- 2022 Indian Wells – Lost in 3R to Gael Monfils
- 2023 Indian Wells – Lost in F to Carlos Alcaraz
- 2024 Indian Wells – Lost in F to Carlos Alcaraz
- 2025 Indian Wells – Lost in SF to Holger Rune
Of course, it will be a tough ask for him to beat the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to the title, but there’s no reason why Medvedev can’t make another deep run.
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Only time will tell who will lift the title in California.
The Indian Wells main draw begins on Wednesday, March 4.
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