Daniil Medvedev hopes sliding improvement on clay will bring first win after 0-3 start at Italian Open

For a former world No. 1 and Grand Slam winner, Daniil Medvedev has an unwanted record against his name that sticks out.

At the Italian Open, which is one of the nine Masters 1000 events on tour – behind only Grand Slams and the Nitto ATP Finals in terms of prestige – Medvedev has never won a match.

In three appearances in Rome he has lost his opener every time. In 2018 he lost in three sets to world No. 44 Robin Haase, in 2019 he lost in three to Nick Kyrgios, and last time out in 2021 he was beaten 6-2 6-4 by fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev.

Medvedev is, however, hopeful he can get on the board at the tournament this week.

“It has been working great, so I’m looking forward to try and play the same in the matches because it’s never the same.

“These two days [practising], I was playing really good clay tennis. I was not missing many balls here these last two days. It was tough for my opponents.

“Again, you never know. I say all this, but maybe first match it’s not the case. But it’s good to have some good practice. I was really happy about it.”

Medvedev’s flat shots are not as effective on clay as they are hard on courts, plus the movement and sliding required to be successful is very different to the fast hard courts he grew up on. But he has made the final of Barcelona and semi-finals of Monte Carlo before, and this year reached the quarters of the latter, as well as the last 16 in Madrid.

“It’s every time the same, the more I play on clay the more I feel like I improve,” he told TennisTV.

“Unfortunately if you play well on the hard courts you don’t get much chance to practice on clay during the year. I feel better every day on clay so the expectations are growing, but that’s a tough part also because the expectations can go down very fast in tennis. Hopefully I can play well.”

Asked what he feels he is doing better on clay this season, Medvedev said: “Moving. Every time I step out on clay first two or three weeks to move is really tough for me, I slide 10 times better on hard courts because it’s so much easier to stop.

“On clay when I go out as soon as I slide I cannot stop anymore, now I’m doing it better and better and I love it. I really need to practice it a lot. I had some time so now I’m much better.”

Medvedev will open against Frenchman Ugo Humbert or world No. 43 Emil Ruusuvuori in Rome.

The French Open starts on May 28.

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