Daniil Medvedev has endured a tough 2024 thus far, emphasised by his Australian Open final defeat at the hands of Jannik Sinner.
Having endured an arduous run to that stage, it felt like the fatigue such gruelling matches invoked only really emerged at that final hurdle, as he blew his two-set lead to sacrifice the title.
The Italian has since beaten him again, this time in Miami, only adding to what has been a tough year thus far for the Russian.
Daniil Medvedev looks back on his Australian Open final defeat
Now, speaking ahead of the Monte-Carlo Masters, he looked back on his crushing Australian Open final defeat and was magnanimous regarding the manner in which the title slipped away from him.
He told Eurosport: ‘I look back on it with experience, on the whole tournament. On the final, to be honest – and I talked to all my team and we discussed it really well – not much I have to say.
‘Good comeback from Jannik, tactically he changed just small things here and there. He managed to, let’s say, get me off the floor.
‘The guys I played before physically they got tired, and I could use it. Jannik didn’t really get tired, didn’t really get too tight.
‘So congrats to him, unfortunately for me. But I think, first of all, I’m able to do crazy things with the amount of hours I played on the court and to win crazy matches.
‘But an experience for next time that maybe I can try to change my game here and there to try to make the matches faster, make the points faster.
‘And if I manage to be in the final [again], arrive there fresher.’
Jannik Sinner is a different animal
Medvedev can at least take some solace from the fact that Sinner has beaten virtually everyone he has played in 2024, and the fact that he has already faced him twice this season is more indicative of his impressive record of enjoying deep runs in competitions rather than misfortune.
After all, only Carlos Alcaraz has dealt a blow to the Italian this season, with the 22-year-old having won every other match and lifted three trophies in the process.
Landmark victories over the 28-year-old, alongside the likes of Novak Djokovic, Ben Shelton, an in-form Grigor Dimitrov, Alex De Minaur and Andrey Rublev offer just a handful of casualties from Sinner’s stunning form.
He is a different animal, and it is expected that he will enjoy much more success as the year goes on.
That being said, he recently revealed that his expectations are low for the Monte-Carlo Masters.
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