Daniil Medvedev admits he finds first round matches ‘very tough’ and has blamed some of his early tournament losses on the balls used after crashing out of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Medvedev, who was the fourth seed in the French capital, suffered a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4), loss to Australia’s Alexi Popyrin. He has now failed to win a match at three out of his past four Masters 1000 tournaments played with the one exception being in Shanghai where he reached the quarter-finals before losing to Jannik Sinner. Overall, the Russian has won 18 matches at these events in 2024 which is six less than last season.
“First rounds are always very tough for me because now the matches I was winning before maybe 3-3, I cannot do it anymore.” Medvedev said after losing to Popyrin.
“Every match I play I have to fight. I have to win 7-6 in the third. And sometimes I lose.
“That’s a reality. It’s the most first-round (or first matches played at tournaments) exits for me since probably 2018, I would guess, or maybe even further, on hard courts. And there is a reason for this.”
As for what this reason is, the former US Open champion linked his most recent loss to his run in Asia before reigniting his concerns about the quality of balls used on the Tour. Recently in Beijing, he described them as ‘slow’ which made it hard to hit a winner ‘unless you have like a very fast, fast hand like Sinner, Alcaraz.’ Furthermore, during an interview with Sofya Tartakova Medvedev floated a theory that the perceived decline in ball quality is linked to the COVID-19 pandemic which affected the production process.
“I don’t want to be the one who is crying when he’s losing the first round, but I made semis in Beijing and quarters in Shanghai. I lost only to Alcaraz and Sinner.” He said.
“As I say, some players will like this ball, so I get it. I’m crying because it disadvantages me. But if you take six balls out of the new balls out of the can, if you look closely and you bounce them, there are going to be six different balls. I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Medvedev hasn’t won a match at the Paris Masters since reaching the final in 2021. He will return to action in just over a week at the ATP Finals in Turin which he will be bidding to win for the second time in his career after 2020.