Daniil Medvedev seeks time on court ahead of French Open

French Open

James Richardson
May 16, 2022

Daniil Medvedev is wary of heading into the French Open underdone and hopes to get a few matches on clay under his belt in Geneva this week.

Medvedev has missed the entire clay swing so far after undergoing surgery on a hernia earlier this year.

He feels that he often takes time to get into clay court tennis but will only have the Geneva Open to get competitive matches in before Roland Garros next week.

Geneva is an ATP 250 event with a scant 28 main draw entrants and if Medvedev makes the final he will play four matches in total.

“It’s never been easy for me on a clay court to start good straight away. So even one tournament is going to be good to prepare,” he told reporters late Sunday.

“I’m feeling good physically, I’m feeling ready.”

Medvedev believes that Geneva offers a playing surface close to the prevailing conditions in Paris.

His other option would have been to enter the Lyon Open.

“From what I can see, the conditions are very similar to Roland-Garros, where the balls fly around and the clay is fairly hard,” the 26-year-old Russian said.

“The most important thing for me is to play at least one match — of course I’m hoping to play more — in order to be ready to play five-set matches, if I have to.

“Even one, two or three matches here could help me be more ready to play at Roland-Garros.”

As one of the top four seeds Medvedev has a bye into the round of 16 in Geneva and will face either Frenchman Richard Gasquet or Australia’s John Millman on Tuesday in the Round of 16.

Medvedev enjoyed a practice knockabout with Denis Shapovalov on Monday afternoon after arriving in Geneva over the weekend.

His quest to return to World No 1 cannot be completed in Geneva, despite Novak Djokovic taking the week off.

Medvedev stands to gain just 250 points if he wins in Geneva, not enough to haul in the current top dog who sports a 680 point advantage after winning his 38th Masters title on Sunday.

Daniil Medvedev