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Fourth seed has won four titles in his past five events
Daniil Medvedev is a former World No. 1, a Grand Slam champion and now a five-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist. For all his accolades, he may never have had a better stretch than the one he is currently on. His maiden trophy triumph at the Miami Open presented by Itau improved his 2023 record to 29-3 and earned him his fourth trophy in his past five events.

"It's the best start of the season I have ever had. Amazing amount of points won," said Medvedev, who now enjoys a 600 point lead over Novak Djokovic in the calendar-year Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

"I think 2019 was great also with six finals and it was also new for me in 2019. So I think it's kind of the same," he also said.

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Medvedev won four titles in his breakout 2019 season and matched that tally in 2021. Just over three months into 2023, he has already equalled that mark with his 7-5, 6-3 victory against Jannik Sinner on Sunday, with plenty of time to add to it.

The 27-year-old was particularly happy that his recent run has come at events across the world, with all different hard-court conditions: He won titles in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai and Miami and reached the final in Indian Wells.

Medvedev has now won five of the six hard-court ATP Masters 1000s, in addition to his runner-up finish last month in Indian Wells. He's also won the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals title and the 2021 US Open crown in addition to his consecutive Australian Open final runs in 2021 and 2022.

Medvedev's ATP Masters 1000 Titles

Miami 2023
Toronto 2021
Paris 2020
Shanghai 2019
Cincinnati 2019
Speaking in his post-match press-conference, the self-defined hard-court specialist explained why he is so comfortable on the surface.

"Generally I love hard courts. I love playing on it. If it would be my choice, it would be only hard courts, but I completely understand that that's not fair, if we can say like this.

"I feel the best at my game on hard courts. Even if I know that I can play well enough on the grass and clay, on hard courts I feel the most fluid. On hard courts I can play not my best tennis but still win the matches. That's a big difference."


While Medvedev's 29 tour-level wins this season pace the ATP Tour, his competitors can only hope the upcoming transition to clay courts cools off the soon-to-be World No. 4.

"Now clay season starts so we'll see how you do there," Sinner teased during his runner-up speech. "But I wish you all the best."

Learn how the 27-year-old earned his fourth title of 2023
Nobody on the planet loves backhand-to-backhand rallies more than Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev defeated Jannik Sinner 7-5, 6-3 in the Miami Open presented by Itau final on Sunday on the back of dominating backhand exchanges through the Ad court.

The secret sauce of Medvedev’s flat, “knuckle-ball” backhands is that they are almost impossible to do anything with. They come at you flat and low, skidding through the court. They are not fast enough that you can use the raw power back against him or slow enough to step in and dominate. They live in a maddening “middle world” that bamboozle opponents into self-destruction.

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Backhand Groundstroke Performance

Medvedev

• Total = 97

• Errors = 5

• Winners = 3

• Opponent Forehand Errors From A Backhand = 6

• Opponent Backhand Errors From A Backhand = 12

• Opponent Backhand Volley Error From A Backhand = 1

Sinner

• Total = 92

• Errors = 19

• Winners = 0

• Opponent Forehand Errors From A Backhand = 3

• Opponent Backhand Errors From A Backhand = 1

Medvedev’s unorthodox backhand only yielded five errors from 92 shots, or one error every 18 backhands. Sinner’s more aesthetically pleasing backhand committed 19 errors from 92 backhands, which was good for one error every five backhands. It was a miss-match that provided Medvedev with a “go-to” winning pattern of play from start to finish.

Medvedev’s backhand was able to extract 12 backhand errors from Sinner, while the Italian was only able to extract a solitary backhand error from Medvedev from his own backhand. Overall, Medvedev hit 97 forehands and 97 backhands for the match and had little desire to hit run-around forehands in the Ad court. Medvedev only hit 10 run-around forehands in the Ad court, while Sinner hit 41.


Medvedev knew his backhand was the wrecking ball.

What’s fascinating about Medvedev’s backhand is that he voluntarily hits it from extremely deep in the court. Medvedev made contact with his backhand 46 per cent of the time from further back than two metres behind the baseline. Sinner made contact just 16 per cent of the time with his backhand from the deep section of the court.

What’s also interesting to note is that Medvedev’s backhand strategy enabled him to hit more backhands inside the baseline than Sinner. Medvedev hit 20 per cent inside the baseline, while Sinner was just at 11 per cent.

He stands deep where he can’t be hurt and quickly moves forward to hurt you when the opportunity arises.

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Sinner’s backhand started the match well, making only two errors from the first 22 backhands struck. It was a vastly different story at the start of the second set, where Sinner committed five backhand errors from the first twelve backhands hit. Four of those errors were committed from not being able to handle a Medvedev cross court backhand.

Medvedev’s backhand got off to a flyer, making the first 30 backhands in a row, including one winner, and forcing seven opponent errors. Medvedev’s backhand was the rock he relied on in the second set, making only two errors from 31 backhands while extracting eight errors from Sinner.

Medvedev’s backhand remains an enigma for opponents. Medvedev won a healthy 61 per cent (45/74) of his baseline points for the match. Sinner only managed to win less than half of that, at 30 per cent (19/64).

Medvedev’s bewitching backhand strikes again.

ATPTour.com speaks exclusively to Medvedev's coach after Miami final
Daniil Medvedev earned his fifth ATP Masters 1000 trophy when he defeated Jannik Sinner on Sunday for the Miami Open presented by Itau title. It was the best moment yet of a torrid stretch for the 27-year-old, who also claimed crowns in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and reached the final at Indian Wells.

Less than two months ago, Medvedev was No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, his lowest point since July 2019. Now he is back to World No. 4 with an opportunity to surge higher during the clay-court season.

After Medvedev’s Miami triumph, ATPTour.com caught up with his coach, Gilles Cervara, who revealed when everything turned around, why opponents struggle so much against the former World No. 1 and more.

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Last year was tough for Daniil. The start of this year was tough. When did everything click and turn around?
For me, it turned around just before Rotterdam. I remember as a coach the three days in Rotterdam before the first round on court were very, very tough. I felt after the Australian Open, during two weeks of practising, but then a few days before the first round in Rotterdam, I felt Daniil quite nervous, quite not confident.

But I felt also he could play good tennis. My job at that time was to find the way to talk to him in a good way to find the good button inside himself to make him practise well and to win the sets during practices. That’s what happened.

Even if he was not ready to realise that he was playing good at that time, I felt that I touched something. Then the first round against [Alejandro] Davidovich [Fokina] was key, to win this one even [though he was] in trouble. And then day after day was getting better and better and then the win against Felix [Auger-Aliassime] made also another important step to get on fire.

What was the piece of advice you gave him?
It was not special advice… I know Daniil, I know how it works with him. I try to adapt with the situation and what he says is very important. Let’s say I talked about this book, it’s like water. I try to be like water, to use the good wave, let’s [put it] like this.

And because he’s a smart guy and he’s an amazing player, when you touch the good thing, he’s able to transform sh** to gold, let’s say it like this.

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What is it that people don’t understand about Daniil and his game?
Tough to say. Tough to say because I’m not in front of him to say it. But sometimes his shots have power, sometimes not. Sometimes you expect something but he goes the other way. Sometimes you expect a deep ball and it comes short with no consistency.

Then one thing [that is] important is he is like a wall. Every ball is coming back and he’s not missing. He’s serving, he’s running. He’s able to almost find a solution for any problem.

He’s an amazing fighter. He really wants to win all the time, so he doesn’t give anything to the opponent and he pushes the opponents at a level that sometimes — I’m not talking about the top players because they’re used to it — but for the other players, they’re not used to playing every point like this. The combo of this makes him so tough to play.

After the Carlos Alcaraz match at Indian Wells where he lost in the final, it would have been easy for him to maybe be down. But he came back and played a great tournament even though historically this swing was never great for him results-wise. How important was it for Daniil to bounce back like that?
Him and I and all the team, our job, I know myself and I know Daniil, we want to win. It’s like [in] our skin to play to win. That’s all it’s about in fact. So you try every day when you are on court to do the best you can do. When you play you want to win.

For example, a small joke when I play snooker with Daniil, I’m ready to get crazy to win against him and he is the same. So there is a lot of tension between us, you can feel it, because he wants to beat me and I want to beat him.