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World No. 5 reached quarter-finals for second time at ATP Masters 1000 event
Never shy of admitting his preference for hard courts over clay, Daniil Medvedev is cherishing his achievements on the latter this week at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

The third seed fell to a straight-sets quarter-final defeat against Holger Rune on Friday at the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event. Yet he leaves Monaco feeling good about adding two more wins to his Tour-leading tally for 2023, and Thursday’s battling third-round victory against Alexander Zverev in particular.

“It was not bad,” said Medvedev, who is now 31-4 on the season, of his run to the last eight in the Principality. “I beat good players on clay. Yesterday evening [against Zverev] was magic. It was very tough on clay. It's not easy to win matches like this.

“[Rune] played very well. I could have played a bit better, but if we talk about clay again, I'm not as at ease as he is on clay. I believe he's better on that surface, and I think in the following years he's going to be very strong on clay. So overall, it's very positive. There are other big tournaments coming up. We'll see what I do there, but I'm very happy with this tournament in Monte-Carlo.”

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Medvedev has spoken about the challenge of hitting through opponents on clay as effectively as he does on hard courts. The former World No. 1 is working hard to identify the best way to counter his rivals on slower surfaces.

“There are things I'm trying to change,” said the 19-time tour-level titlist. “I'm trying to change the directions and have a bit of more topspin, because if you play flat on clay, it doesn't work, especially against the better players.

“I believe my game was not so bad [against Rune], except that he was more decisive in important moments and he feels when he needs to be aggressive or defensive. This is something I feel well on hard courts and not as well on clay. So, I'm not sure I can change that, but I will try. If one day I'm able to become a monster on clay, I'm happy.”

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After tasting defeat in his first ATP Head2Head meeting with Rune, Medvedev was full of praise for a player he believes possesses a natural ability on clay.

“He played good. He's a great player on clay,” said Medvedev of the 19-year-old Dane, who reached his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros last year. "I feel like that's the surface that suits him the best with his heavy topspin strokes. I think he's a very dangerous player on clay for the years to come.”

The loss to Rune was just Medvedev’s second defeat in his past 28 tour-level matches. His red-hot run, which has included titles in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai and Miami, has propelled the 27-year-old to first place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

On Monday, he will move within 2000 points of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, and Medvedev has fewer points to defend than both World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz across the rest of the European clay-court swing.