Mumbai: Daniil Medvedev added another chapter to his complicated relationship with clay courts.
He had once asked the Italian Open (which is played on clay) tournament director to “please disqualify me. I don’t want to be here, it could get dangerous for everybody.” In that same 2021 season in Madrid, he ranted to his coach “I don’t want to play on this surface.”
In time, arguably, Medvedev has mellowed down and learned to play on clay. But on Tuesday, against Cameron Norrie, a player he had never lost a set to in their previous four meetings, the world No.11 was handed a first round loss at the French Open.
In a thrilling match that lasted three hours and 53 minutes, Norrie eventually won 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, 7-5.
“He’s so tough to beat, I think I deserve a diploma for beating Medvedev… He’s got me the last four times,” Norrie said in his on-court interview on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
A self-proclaimed hard-court specialist, Medvedev is a former world No.1 and six-time Grand Slam finalist, winning the US Open in 2021. Most of his skillset, though, does not translate well to clay.
Medvedev is a naturally flat-hitter of the ball which is not as effective as topspin on the red dirt. He moves remarkably well on hard courts, despite standing at 6-foot-6, but has struggled with his footwork and sliding on clay. What he does have going for him is his tenacity.
He needed every bit of it to overcome a two-set deficit against Norrie, only to falter at the finish line. Medvedev finished the last set the same way he ended the first – failing to serve out the set.
Medvedev follows a long list of high-profile players who have struggled to adapt on clay. The likes of John McEnroe, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg – all former world No.1s – have been unable to win the only Grand Slam played on slow clay courts.
Roger Federer, though a good clay-courter himself and winner of the 2009 French Open, had a chink in the armour — the one-handed backhand, which was what Rafael Nadal exploited time and time again.
Parisian clay, made from finely ground brick, demands practice and precision. Just moving on the surface, with a shifting top layer of the powdered dirt, let alone sliding in sync to the shots is an art in itself.
Courts are slow and the ball loses its pace on the bounce and sits up. Which is why a flat hitter like Medvedev struggles to find the same penetrative power his groundstrokes earn him on a hard court. That coupled with his struggles to find his footing on the surface, make Medvedev vulnerable.
He once famously ranted during a match in Rome (2021) — “It’s the worst surface in the world for me. But if you like to be in the dirt like a dog, I don’t judge.”
But for all his struggles and dislike of the surface, he has put in the hard yards to learn how to play on clay. It reached a point that he, against all odds, managed to win the Rome Masters in 2023 – his first and only clay court title so far.
“I feel (good) more and more when I go to clay courts,” Medvedev had said in April last year, ahead of the Madrid Masters. “I know that my game is a little bit more limited than on hard courts in terms of what I can do. And in terms of if I play a good match on hard courts, I know that 90 percent of the matches I’m going to win. On clay court, that is not the case. Every match is 50/50.”
He nearly tipped the scales in his favour on Tuesday. Despite trailing by two sets, he started to hit with more topspin and his serve started to hit the right notes as he levelled the match.
He even got the early break in the fifth set and was serving for the match at 5-4. Crucially, that is where his serve deserted him while Norrie also started to aggressively push back, and eventually pip the Russian to the finish line.
