By Chris Oddo | Monday August 11, 2025
What occurred to Daniil Medvedev? Keep in mind the previous World No.1, the man who stood tall towards the Large Three and racked up titles on laborious courts like they had been going out of fashion? Has anybody seen that man?
There wouldn’t be a sighting in Cincinnati, the place Medvedev appeared as a shell of his former self as he wilted in defeat to Australia’s Adam Walton on Sunday, 6-7 6-4 6-1.
It’s simply odd to see the previous juggernaut at No.15 on this planet, carrying a document of 26-17 for the season. One of the crucial charming, personable gamers on the ATP Tour, who earned his nickname the “slim reaper” because of his wiry body and uncanny means to outlast gamers together with his trademark accuracy and resiliency, is just 29 years previous. It’s not like he’s Kei Nishikori at 35 and on the way in which out, or Gael Monfils at 38.
Medvedev is 1-3 on the Grand Slams in 2025, and 11-7 on the Masters occasions. This can be a participant who received greater than 60 matches in 2021 and 2023, and reached six main finals between 2019 and 2024. However he’s gone 12-20 towards the High-20 because the begin of 2024, so his lack of success towards the elite now not comes as shock.
Medvedev was just a few video games from profitable yesterday’s match with Walton, however the excessive warmth zapped him. He was struggling throughout courtside changeovers, dunking his head in a water cooler and sitting beneath an ice pack. On courtroom he had nothing to provide within the deciding set. It occurs, but it surely shouldn’t. No excuses, that is the kind of problem he has pushed by in earlier years, as he turned among the finest laborious courtroom gamers in tennis.
The 2021 US Open champion will head to the US Open subsequent, the place he’s 33-7 lifetime. If a dose of New York power can’t carry his recreation to life, we should always all be frightened.
