Daniil Medvedev has shown some signs of recovery in recent weeks, but he is still far from his standards and no longer makes a difference at the decisive moments of tournaments. The former world number 1 reached the quarterfinals at the ATP 500 in Doha and Dubai, failing several chances to get further still in these tournaments.
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Despite the particularly slow surface, the Russian ace shone in the first rounds of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 should have reached the final in the last two editions. The 2021 US Open champion had to face his first difficulties during the match against Arthur Fils in the quarterfinals, prevailing at the decisive tiebreak and celebrating that victory in a rather surprising way for his habits.
Fans thought that triumph gave him the confidence to defeat Holger Rune in the semi-finals, but the young Danish star pulled off an excellent performance and won the match in two sets by conceding crumbs to his opponent.
Daniil really had a significant chance in California, considering that Carlos Alcaraz was defeated by Jack Draper in the other semi-final.
Medvedev is demoralized
Medvedev absolutely needs to go back to lifting a trophy to regain confidence, considering he ended the 2024 season without even a title. Moreover, the Russian has not reached a final in exactly one year, when he was defeated by Carlitos in the final of the 'BNP Paribas Open'.
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His last title was almost two years ago, at the Rome Masters 1000 in 2023.
After the 2024 Indian Wells Masters 1000, the champion from Moscow played 21 tournaments reaching the semi-finals as his best results in Miami, Wimbledon, Beijing, Marseille and Indian Wells yesterday.
If he had lifted the trophy today, Daniil would have become the only player under 30 to win all of the Masters 1000 on hard courts.
The Russians next goal will be the Miami Open, which starts next week. He won this tournament in 2023, when he defeated Jannik Sinner in the final.
Two years have passed, but the situation has changed completely since then and not in a positive way.
