The Indian Wells organizers made a surface change ahead of this year's tournament edition with the intention of speeding up the courts, but Daniil Medvedev so far has found them "almost slower than before."
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If you remember well, the Russian tennis star had one of the more famous meltdowns in the desert two years ago when he ranted: "What a shame to call this awful court a hard court."
Since the opening Masters tournament of the year takes place in the desert and dry desert air is one of the reasons why conditions are usually slow in Indian Wells, the tournament also used Plexipave courts.
But for this year, the BNP Paribas Open switched from Plexipave to Laykold courts - the provider being used at the Miami Masters and the US Open.
On paper, this should make the courts faster in Indian Wells.
Medvedev: I like the courts now but they seem to be almost slower than before
"It's okay, I like Indian Wells, I even like the courts now, but they seem to be almost slower than before, very slow. I don't know what other players think, but as I said, I just had two days, jet-lagged," the former world No. 1 explained.
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"So you're not very, how you say, when you don't see the things maybe in the right way. So I won't be able to tell you that I'm sure what I'm saying.
"But, yeah, I played two days, and they seemed very, very slow, so let's see how it plays during the tournament. And I didn't see the difference."
Medvedev may have had some harsh comments about the Indian Wells courts in the past but he still made back-to-back finals in 2023 and 2024 - lost to Carlos Alcaraz on both occasions.
This year, the fifth-seeded Russian has a first-round bye before meeting the winner of the match between Nishesh Basavareddy and Bu Yunchaokete.
