Familiar Faces, New Voices

Medvedev, Osaka Aim To Find Their Feet On Clay

- Prajwal Hegde

Daniil Medvedev was asked how he’d connote being ‘in the zone’. The 25-year-old’s resolution cuffed the line. “Being in the zone is to not miss a ball, that’s where I’m strong,” the Russian said.

If consistency is the glue that sticks winning performances together, it’s truer at the French Open than the grass of Wimbledon and the synthetic slates that dot the tennis landscape from Melbourne to New York. It’s as much in the repartee as in the repetition. Starting Sunday, Roland Garros’s red clay will spark questions.

The answers, as always, will lie with the steadfast and sturdy.

Medevedev – all temperamental on the court, but a gentle Zephyr off it — has never won a match in his four outings in the clay-court Slam. The Russian shrugged off trolls and owned the world No.2 ranking that resulted in the trio of Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic falling on the same half of the draw for the first time.

Medvedev has enjoyed his practice sessions in Paris so far. Dancing in the dirt. “I don’t know if it’s the ball change (from Babolat) to Wilson that suits me, but so far I have been playing amazing. I didn’t feel that it was clay, I was playing like on hard courts,” he said.

The second seed is shooting for the final weekend of the championships, and the best way to get there, he reckons, is to take it one match at a time.