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Reason why Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev cannot fail in Shanghai

Reason why Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev cannot fail in Shanghai

The rise of Carlos Alcaraz And Jannik Sinner The past two years have been imperious and have forced other players to raise their levels so as not to deviate from the top positions in the ATP rankings. The Spanish champion and the Italian ace equally shared the four Grand Slam titles this year, while other top players such as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniel Medvedev And Alexander Zverev had to settle for placements.

The Greek player hoped to finally win a Major without Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, also taking into account Novak Djokovic‘s age-related decline. The feeling is that the champion from Athens currently has a much lower playing level than Alcaraz and Sinner, and is mainly bothered by the Spaniard’s playing style.

Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas© YouTube screenshot

Stefanos faced Carlitos for the second year in a row at the French Open and failed to win a single set, leaving him feeling at the mercy of his opponent. Tsitsipas’ season cannot be considered fully satisfactory (despite his victory in Monte Carlo), and neither does Medvedev, who has not yet won a title this year.

The Greek and the Russian will face each other in the round of 16 of the World Cup Shanghai Masters 1000in a match that promises tension and balance. The penultimate Masters 1000 of the season is very important and represents an opportunity for many players to accumulate points ahead of the competition. Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

An important clash

The match between Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas will certainly be one of the most interesting in the Shanghai Masters 1000 Round of 16. The Greek champion is trailing 9 to 4 in the previous matches, but he wants to reverse the trend and finally achieve a victory . good result in a difficult year.

Tsitsipas’ season has been quite disappointing so far and the Greek champions have had more lows than highs. The challenge against Medvedev – one of his biggest opponents in the circus – could revive the Greek and ultimately he could meet the winner between Sinner and Ben Sheltonhere are his words at the press conference: “In the final I didn’t do well, I lost concentration after a good match. I was frustrated with some of my recordings and things weren’t going wellI gave him the break with a series of mistakes and I wasn’t convinced. I have experienced moments like this before and all I could do was eliminate negative thoughts.”

Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas© Tsitsi_Smile X account

Tsitsipas then spoke about the upcoming challenge with Medvedev and was very clear about it: “He is elevated in stadiums like this, I feel like I am growing and I need a big win to improve. I want to play my best tennis and things will take their own course. My relationship with Medvedev? I respect him very much, certainly much more than before. We have had clashes in the past, both on and off the field, but now it has all been resolved, we have talked about it and come to a real understanding. I like to close problems and not leave them unresolved. Medvedev’s tennis is absolutely not normal, it is different and in the past I would have criticized him, but I would have been absolutely wrong. He is a unique and original player, different from what we see everywhere.”

Lots of expectations

Despite reaching the final at the Australian Open earlier this year and the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships, Daniil can’t be happy with his 2024. The former world number 1 has been complaining a lot lately about balls that, in his opinion, would only favor certain players: “These balls are not good enough for professional tennis. This is one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the balls are destroyed after 5 matches. No pressure at all.

“I don’t think anyone changes. I think it actually favors people who can take advantage of the power of dead balls. Some have better quality with this. Some don’t. Actually the two best players doing this.. they are already the best players in the world.. and I’m sure they would be without the balls, but with these balls.. they are the only players who can make crazy flow . They are Jannik and Carlos. It gives them an extra edge.”

Daniel Medvedev
Daniel Medvedev© X screenshot

The 2021 US Open champion explained his position: “I admit that sometimes I go crazy. I’ve spent my whole life trying to find a way to stay on the edge and stay calm, but you never know what works sometimes . There have been times when I crossed the line and that cannot be the casebut today wasn’t one of them.”