A Detailed Look At Daniil Medvedev's Tennis Game And Why He Might Be The Most Tactical Player In The World
The former world no. 1 Daniil Medvedev was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. He was born on 11 February 1996 and currently has 20 unique singles titles under his name, including a Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2021. He is currently ranked number 5 on the PIF ATP Rankings. His unorthodox tactics, playing style and technique shocked the tennis world and many thought that he would not go far. However, he went on to prove many wrong.
Medvedev was not exactly a late bloomer, but he needed some time to get adjusted to the tour and only achieved “success” in 2018 when he shot up the rankings, winning 3 titles by the end of that season at the age of 22. He took his career to greater heights when he won the Nitto ATP Finals at the end of 2020 and then won his first Slam the following year. He spent 16 weeks as the World Number 1 in 2022, and was the first man outside the Big 4 to be the World Number 1 since Andy Roddick in 2004. Standing at 1.98m tall, he is the tallest World Number 1 in the history of the sport.
Medvedev finished in the top-10 for 5 consecutive years from 2018-2023 and has made six Grand Slam finals, in which he only managed to win the US Open in 2021. He had a fantastic season in 2023, adding 5 more titles to his name with a W-L record of 66-18. Despite his prowess in the game, he has never successfully defended a title in his career, so all his titles are unique! Still, he was able to remain at the top of the game by making deep runs consistently at each tournament.
Medevedev started off the 2024 season rather strong, making the finals at the Australian Open, playing marathon matches one after the other. He spent a total of 24 hours and 17 minutes to play 31 sets of tennis throughout that tournament. He is currently having a pretty decent season despite not having lifted any titles yet, with a W-L record of 33-10.
Tennis Gear
Daniil Mevedev is sponsored by Lacoste and he carries their kits, apparels, bag and shoes on and off-court. His current racket sponsor is Tecnifibre and he endorses the T-Fight 305 Isoflex. Similar to many others on tour, he does not use a conventional off-the-shelf racket. He is said to be using a custom Tecnifibre Dynacore 305 with the paint job of the racket line he is endorsing. The frame he is using is similar to his last racket before he made the switch from Wilson to the French brand.
Racket Specifications
Head Size: 95 sq. in.
Strung weight: 359g
Length: 27”
String pattern: 18x19
Strung Balance: ~310mm (9 pts HL)
Dampener: None
He swings a hefty racket with a compact head size and a tight string pattern. A racket of this specification calls for a high level of focus and technique, as there is little room for error. It is definitely not a racket that an amateur can pick up and play well with. His racket set up is a good fit for his flat-hitting baseline game that focuses more on consistency and efficiency in matches. His racket is probably one of the main factors as to why he can outlast many others on tour during long matches.
Medvedev has tried different string set-ups over the last few seasons, from a full bed of Razor Code to Razor Code Soft in 2023. Most recently, he was seen playing with a hybrid set-up, with natural gut on the mains and Razor Code Soft on the crosses, apparently strung 24kgs on the mains and 25kgs on the crosses.
The move to a softer string set up made his racket slightly more powerful and forgiving. He also typically strings at varying tensions depending on the conditions that he is playing in, anywhere from 22-25kgs (48-55lbs). It would not be strange to see Medvedev move to a bigger racket frame, given where the game is heading. We most recently saw Andy Murray make the switch to the Yonex Ezone 100 weighted up from his Pro Stock Head PT57A to try to find a competitive edge in today’s game.
Groundstrokes
Forehand
Daniil Medvedev plays right-handed and uses a semi-western grip for his forehand (his index knuckle on bevel 4). However, it is noted that he places his knuckle quite close to bevel 3 which mislead people into thinking that he uses the eastern grip. He uses the semi-western grip which is the most common way to grip the racket in the modern game.
Another notable player who uses the same grip on the forehand as Medvedev is Stefanos Tsitsipas. Their grip, perhaps, is one of the reasons why their forehand is relatively flatter than other players who are using the semi-western grip (Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune).
Here is a breakdown of his forehand:
He grips his racket loosely and has his left hand supporting the throat of the racket as he starts his unit turn.
He turns and then releases his left hand when he starts to pull his racket back to a high backswing position where his grip is above shoulder height and the hitting face of his stringbed facing the back of the court. His left arm is also kept out to help him gauge the distance.
He usually positions his legs in a semi-open or open stance. Then, he starts his racket dropping motion as he initiates the hip rotation and pivots on his right while starting the swing by rotating his wrist and driving his racket forward with the racket lag.
He swings with the wrist leading and racket butt pointing towards the ball, then moves through the motion and makes contact with the ball when the racket head is levelled with his wrist and a slightly bent arm just ahead of his left knee.
He swings through and ends the shot with the full follow-through with a fully uncoiled shoulder and hips, where his body ends square facing the net at the end of his follow-through.
Medvedev's forehand is unorthodox because of the unusually high backswing and his extreme follow-through at the end of the swing. Another unique thing about his forehand is his contact point. While his semi-western grip provides easy access to topspin with a lower contact point, Medvedev likes to take the ball a little higher, hitting flatter shots. However, with the grip, he is able to vary his shots with relative ease, adjusting the point of contact whenever necessary.
Backhand
Daniil Medvedev uses the double-handed backhand, adopting the eastern grip on his top hand and the continental grip on his bottom hand. One unique thing about his backhand apart from the extreme follow-through is the position of his hands in the grip when he hits a backhand.
He has a split grip, leaving a gap in between his hands when hitting his backhand. This is highly uncommon on the Tour as it would limit the reach of the player. However, with his height, the split grip does not affect his reach at all and instead provides him easier directional control with an enhanced ability to change the angle of his racket quickly.
Here is a breakdown of his backhand:
After the split step, he does a full unit turn as he changes his grip on the racket. He will then be in a closed stance to pivot on his front foot while he pulls his racket back.
He starts the backswing. He has his right arm bent and then fully extends as he pulls the racket further back.
His left arm will start to straighten as the tip of the racket head reaches the ideal position (5 o’clock). Then he starts his swing forward, dropping the racket head before driving the racket towards the ball.
While doing so, he pivots on his front leg to generate power while guiding his racket forward with his left arm simultaneously.
He continues to accelerate the racket forward with his left arm and then makes contact with the ball in his hit zone. The entire uncoiling motion of his hips allows maximum acceleration and power as he launches at the ball.
He will finish off the swing with the follow-through and has his body fully uncoiled fully to keep his balance and recover quickly.
Medvedev's backhand technique is not dissimilar to other players, but perhaps the key difference is that he has little to none of the racket flip motion. During his backswing, the racket face is not flipped to face the ground. As such, he often hits the backhand pretty flat and with a very low trajectory making it hard for his opponents to return.
Serve
Daniil Medvedev, the tallest world number 1 in the history of the sport, boasts a rather effective serve, taking advantage of his 1.98m height. While he does not have the most consistent serve, he places the serve effectively to help set up his shots.
He has started recently to hit a slice serve out-wide, standing at an extreme service position to get an angle of serve that is almost impossible to return. He likes experimenting on-court, especially on his serves, keeping his options open and trying as much as he can to gain free points on his serves.
He doesn’t take much time in between his first and second serves, even if he has to serve after a long rally. He does not give his opponents much time to rest, think or prepare for the return, which gives him a slight edge in his service games in those moments.
Here is the breakdown of his service motion:
Starting at the baseline, he will position his left foot about 30° towards the baseline with his right foot about shoulder width behind his left before his winding up motion.
He tosses the ball up with his tossing arm fully extended. This also initiates the move of his right leg forward, sliding into the pin-point stance. While doing this, he also moves his racket up into the trophy position.
He bends his knees with his tossing arm fully extended and his hips leaning forward toward the baseline.
He starts to push off the ground like a spring with his body and chest moving upwards while his tossing arm starts to come down towards his body.
As he pushes upwards, he starts his racket motion by dropping the racket from right to left. He extends his arm leading the racket with his hitting elbow rotating the internal shoulder and pronates his wrist as his racket approaches the ball.
His arm will be fully extended as the racket makes contact with the ball. He also makes sure to fully uncoil putting all the energy he generates from the ground up into the serve, utilising the full kinetic chain.
He follows through the serve across his body and lands in the court with his left foot while the right is up to keep his balance.
He readies himself to receive the return.
Overall Playstyle
Daniil Medvedvev is a counter puncher with a big serve. Undoubtedly, one of the best defenders on tour at the moment, he moves around the court with relative ease and speed despite his height (1.98m). He is also often referred to as a chess master on court due to his unorthodox style and tactics he brings to the court. He plays his own game despite adversities, daring to take risks in important moments, and although stubborn in some ways his confidence and the ability to execute allows him to catch his opponents off guard.
He is well-known for his unorthodox groundstrokes, unique with his very extreme follow through on both wings. While he does not hit bombs on every shot like Alcaraz or Sinner, he is able to put every ball back in play, breaking down his opponent shot after shot. He wears his opponents down slowly but surely.
He thrives in marathon matches and one of the reasons why is that he really does not generate much pace on his own but instead effectively absorbs the pace of the shots coming from his opponents, conserving a lot of his energy while wearing his opponents down.
He also dominates his opponents easily if he gains control of the rally with his own off-paced hitting as he is able to absorb pace and redirect shots with relative ease. The off-paced hitting does not allow his opponents to get into their own rhythm, which makes it tough for his opponents to focus and thus drawing opportunities to attack or errors from his opponents.
He is one of the best returners on tour despite his deep return position. While it is obvious that the serve and volley tactic works well against him, not many on the tour are able to execute it well enough given Medvedev’s ability to hit a deep groundstroke return from far behind the baseline.
One aspect of Medvedev’s game that may appear weak is his volleys. However, he does have great feel for the ball and a rather decent net game with quick reflexes and good reach. His ability to anticipate the movement of the ball and his opponents is also a great asset to his game, making him one of the best players in the world at the moment.
While Medvedev does not play the prettiest tennis, it is a game and style that works for him. His consistency at the highest level will likely keep him as one of the best players in the sport for a long time.