Carlos Alcaraz ‘a bit slower’ and doesn’t have ‘same confidence’ as before says Daniil Medvedev at ATP Finals

World No. 2 Alcaraz was beaten in three sets by Alexander Zverev in his debut at the tournament.

Alcaraz had seen off Zverev in convincing fashion in both of their previous meetings this year, but was not at the same level in his Turin opener.

Since losing to Medvedev in the semi-finals of the US Open his record is 5-4 while he hasn’t won a tournament since Wimbledon.

Asked if he was surprised to see Alcaraz lose to Zverev, Medvedev said: “If you would ask me two or three months ago, for sure.

“Now, you know… tennis is a very, very tricky sport. And at this moment, for whatever reason, we feel that Carlos plays just a little bit slower. He does not have the same confidence he had throughout the whole year. This can happen to everyone.

“This even happened to Novak [Djokovic] when he was younger. So the question is, how fast is he going to recover? Is it going to be in this tournament or next year?

“When he lost the second set, they showed the speed of the groundstrokes, and Sasha [Alexander Zverev] was like 10 kilometres higher than Carlos, and this is very surprising.

“So, in general, when I saw the match, in the beginning, we felt that Carlos is not playing his best, actually Sasha also – so I am not surprised at all.

“In the end, it turned out to be a great fight and a great match. So, no surprises. And Sasha can play well also and serve well. So, it is going to be interesting to play him for the 18th time.”

Rublev is godfather to Medvedev’s daughter, and Medvedev spoke about how he deals with playing a close friend.

“To be honest, on court, I do not know how it is for him, but for me, on court, it does not exist – friends, enemies – I just try to win the match. I do not think about anything else.

“But, when the last point is finished, that is when I am like, I feel sorry for him. He lost the match. But it is the same for him, if he beats me.

“I mean, last year was brutal when he beat me. So, I felt for one or two days he was, kind of, shy to talk to me and took care.

“So it is the same, you always try to look at him and see if tomorrow we can talk like normal. And I am going to say to him ‘good luck, go for it in the next matches’ and he is probably going to say the same.”

Medvedev, who faces Zverev in his next match on Wednesday, was also asked what he plans to do when he retires.

“What I, for sure, will try to do, depends how my life goes, but I will try to be an amateur racing driver. That is my dream.

“I, for sure, cannot go professional anywhere. But like this… some like Ferrari challenge or whatever, where you pay money and you race throughout the whole year on the best tracks in the world – this I am going to do with some of my friends.”

Tuesday’s action sees Holger Rune face Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic take on Jannik Sinner.