Medvedev’s Mind Game – How to Thrive on a Surface you Don’t Embrace?

Hilarious? Yes. Confidence-inspiring? Not exactly.

If Medvedev can’t enjoy playing on the clay, it’s hard to imagine him having a breakout spring on the surface. Then again, the Russian was a walking contradiction at Indian Wells, where he heaped criticism on the slow-playing hard courts in play at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and still managed a career-best performance by reaching the final.

The self-declared “toxic relationship” with that surface didn’t hurt his performance, so maybe it can be the same on the red clay in Monte-Carlo and beyond?

A big maybe.

Medvedev is 19-23 on clay lifetime and hasn’t really figured out a way to play the kind of tennis that allows him to thrive. Even after today’s win over Sonego it sounded like the surface is already getting to him.

“I always struggle on clay,” he said, adding: “Every match is a struggle.

One man’s confidence is another man’s struggle. In this case, Medvedev is both men.

“There’s no rhythm on Play. Every bounce is a bad bounce. And even when it’s a good bounce, you are expecting a bounce so you cannot get into a rhythm,” he said.

But a few moments later he reminded us all of why Medvedev’s clay problems may not be as bad as he leads us to believe.

“It’s completely different on clay, but confidence is confidence. It’s about winning matches because it’s always two players that play and one is going to win,” he said. “ I hope to bring this confidence even further.”