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Daniil Medvedev...Meteoric?
jimlosaltos made this comment in one of the "Sticky" threads called "Have a question for me". I saw the comments from Zverev and he is not a guy that one goes to for an interesting quote but what he said did raise a couple of eyebrows. Namely those of jimlosaltos and my own.
I have given Medvedev the nickname "Mr. Pencil" as he is built like a pencil with an eraser for a head. But Medvedev appears to be sort of a Djokovic 101 version and he plays with the same sort of uncanny balance of impeccable defence and the constant threat of aggressive offence.
But he isn't all that complicated as Alexander Zverev makes him out to be. Alexander sounds like he is describing the enigmatic Miloslav Mecir. Now there was a guy that players had a tough time getting their heads around. Much as Alexander has described Mecir...I mean Medvedev.
Daniil is a slippery character. Much like Novak Djokovic. But he is a cagey tactician as well. He seems to give you the limp leg that NFL running backs give to their tacklers and he breaks tackles and suddenly he is on the offence. A couple of times opponents played Medvedev tough at various times in their matches in Shanghai only to see him turn the momentum around and giving them the short end of the stick. He sort of does a bit of "rope-a-dope" by letting his opponents sort of punch themselves out and he then turns on the afterburners to the finish line.
He has a very underrated serve...at least to this point. If you get to the finals of a Grand Slam you must have a really good serve. It is a quick delivery which is very unlike Djokovic's in that regard. He wants to step up to the line and unload it on his opponent and this is a clever tactic in controlling the pace of play. Rafael Nadal found that he couldn't handle this pace of play and tried to rattle him with stalling tactics and I think that it worked. Somewhat.
Daniil has quite a streak going on now. And he gets right back to work in Moscow this week. He's a workhorse too. Interesting character too. He had the guts to get right back in the face of the entire New York Open crowd and give it right back to them after they were heckling him during a match. He nearly pulled of the amazing feat that he presented to them as a challenge. He said that if they kept up the abuse it was only going to give him the necessary energy to pull of winning the tournament.
He's certainly a tough opponent. No real visible weakness. He makes it up seemingly too. Unafraid to try different approaches. In the final of the U. S. Open he suddenly started to serve and volley and attack the net. Down in Australia he was serving to Novak Djokovic in the deuce court while standing nearly in the doubles alley. He's clever. He's Mr. Pencil.
I have given Medvedev the nickname "Mr. Pencil" as he is built like a pencil with an eraser for a head. But Medvedev appears to be sort of a Djokovic 101 version and he plays with the same sort of uncanny balance of impeccable defence and the constant threat of aggressive offence.
But he isn't all that complicated as Alexander Zverev makes him out to be. Alexander sounds like he is describing the enigmatic Miloslav Mecir. Now there was a guy that players had a tough time getting their heads around. Much as Alexander has described Mecir...I mean Medvedev.
Daniil is a slippery character. Much like Novak Djokovic. But he is a cagey tactician as well. He seems to give you the limp leg that NFL running backs give to their tacklers and he breaks tackles and suddenly he is on the offence. A couple of times opponents played Medvedev tough at various times in their matches in Shanghai only to see him turn the momentum around and giving them the short end of the stick. He sort of does a bit of "rope-a-dope" by letting his opponents sort of punch themselves out and he then turns on the afterburners to the finish line.
He has a very underrated serve...at least to this point. If you get to the finals of a Grand Slam you must have a really good serve. It is a quick delivery which is very unlike Djokovic's in that regard. He wants to step up to the line and unload it on his opponent and this is a clever tactic in controlling the pace of play. Rafael Nadal found that he couldn't handle this pace of play and tried to rattle him with stalling tactics and I think that it worked. Somewhat.
Daniil has quite a streak going on now. And he gets right back to work in Moscow this week. He's a workhorse too. Interesting character too. He had the guts to get right back in the face of the entire New York Open crowd and give it right back to them after they were heckling him during a match. He nearly pulled of the amazing feat that he presented to them as a challenge. He said that if they kept up the abuse it was only going to give him the necessary energy to pull of winning the tournament.
He's certainly a tough opponent. No real visible weakness. He makes it up seemingly too. Unafraid to try different approaches. In the final of the U. S. Open he suddenly started to serve and volley and attack the net. Down in Australia he was serving to Novak Djokovic in the deuce court while standing nearly in the doubles alley. He's clever. He's Mr. Pencil.
Originally posted by jimlosaltos
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