Medvedev, the best of NextGen

[jonwbecker]

I'm a Nadal fan and tonight was a stressful but ultimately enjoyable epic match. But I can tell you from what I saw this tournament and the last couple of months, Medvedev is the real deal and the best of the NextGen. He's better than Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas, FAA, Rublev, whoever. Medvedev played out of his mind. For being 6'6" and looking like a gangly accountant, that dude can move like a mother and hits amazing shots at all kinds of angles. Gets to every ball and never misses, like a zoning Djokovic with a better serve. And he's mentally tough as hell like the big 3 and unlike his generational counterparts. I gained a ton of respect for him and will root for him in the future. He surely will win many majors, probably starting next year. He just needs a good nickname. Med Man?

 

[victorcruz]

Yep. Tonight Med was an honorary member of the big 3 with the way he played.

 

[Azure]

Mad respect for Mad Lad.

 

[Lleytonstation]

Vexing Med.

He has a vexing personality and playing style.i am vexed by this guy.

 

[6august]

"like a zoning Djokovic"???

2017 Djokovic?

 

[Elektra]

Yes he won me over, he has the mechanics, shot making and fighter spirit to become a grandslam champion. The fact that he embraces five setters and the crowd shows that he has stardom in the making, He just needs to be more clutch mentally on critical points but overall he has won be over and hopes he wins a grandslam.

 

[travlerajm]

I loved when he saved match point at 30-40 by serve-and-volleying on his second serve to the Rafa forehand. Balls of steel.

 

[Zverev]

Med Man.... not too shabby
I like it

 

[DSH]

 

[Tennis_Hands]

..

 

[AlexanderTheGreat08]

I'm a Nadal fan and tonight was a stressful but ultimately enjoyable epic match. But I can tell you from what I saw this tournament and the last couple of months, Medvedev is the real deal and the best of the NextGen. He's better than Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas, FAA, Rublev, whoever. Medvedev played out of his mind. For being 6'6" and looking like a gangly accountant, that dude can move like a mother and hits amazing shots at all kinds of angles. Gets to every ball and never misses, like a zoning Djokovic with a better serve. And he's mentally tough as hell like the big 3 and unlike his generational counterparts. I gained a ton of respect for him and will root for him in the future. He surely will win many majors, probably starting next year. He just needs a good nickname. Med Man?

Remember Tsitsipas is 2 and half years younger , You’re not being fair , At 21 Medvedev didn’t defeated all the Big 3 players and reached majors semifinals or masters finals. Zverev is also 1 year younger , You wouldn’t consider Daniil better than him before the USO series , So we need to see what Zverev can do next year. FAA is like 4 years younger , It’s dumb to include him. Rublev is also 2 years younger , You need to be more patient with this guys too just like with Medvedev. Thiem isn’t really aspiring to be an ATG , But he’s got a shot at later on becoming No.1 and winning majors thanks to him being so good on the clay

 

[AceSalvo]

Mr. "I prefer best of 3" will be found out pretty soon. 23.5 and counting. Just like that Thiem fella.

 

[Purplemonster]

I'm a Nadal fan and tonight was a stressful but ultimately enjoyable epic match. But I can tell you from what I saw this tournament and the last couple of months, Medvedev is the real deal and the best of the NextGen. He's better than Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas, FAA, Rublev, whoever. Medvedev played out of his mind. For being 6'6" and looking like a gangly accountant, that dude can move like a mother and hits amazing shots at all kinds of angles. Gets to every ball and never misses, like a zoning Djokovic with a better serve. And he's mentally tough as hell like the big 3 and unlike his generational counterparts. I gained a ton of respect for him and will root for him in the future. He surely will win many majors, probably starting next year. He just needs a good nickname. Med Man?

Maybe if he is one day coached by Agassi we can call him Methvedev.

 

[RF6777]

People saying he has no tools to hurt Rafa...
He hit 70 winners...More than rafa

 

[Fintft]

People saying he has no tools to hurt Rafa...
He hit 70 winners...More than rafa

And if Rafa didn't behave poorly, disturbing Daniil's serve rhythm tonight we might have had a different champion!

 

[Lleytonstation]

People saying he has no tools to hurt Rafa...
He hit 70 winners...More than rafa

Still lost. 70 winners and you lose? That means you are not very consistent. Too many UE's.

 

[Goret]

The most important thing is that Medvedev now knows he has the tools to win against almost anyone on the tour - it wouldn't have been the case if Nadal had straight setted him again. He shows great mental strength and a fighting approach, also seems able to adapt his game to try "solving" his opponent. That's the main difference he has over his Next-Gen fellows - some may reveal themselves in the coming years (after all, many are still young).

He now has to proove he can keep this level over a longer duration.

 

[ron schaap]

Maybe so, but he must not get injured with his long vulnerable limbs.

 

[Deleted member 763999]

Personally I am not a big fan of his playstyle, but I really like what I saw from him tonight. The guy has the fighting spirits, decent tennis IQ and clutchness in the big moments. At first, I thought I was going to root for Tsitsipas after the Big 3 retired, but Tsitsipas has really turned me off with his arrogance and bad attitude. Hopefully Medvedev will win a major in 2020.

 

[travlerajm]

He does seem to have the clutch gene. His on-court Rocky IV speech addressing the crowd was clutch too, and could end up being legendary some day.

 

[UnderratedSlam]

This accountant will be no 1 next year or 2021. He will win several slams.

Best mover ever for a guy his height. And very cunning. He is the best of his generation.

 

[BH40love]

FAA has doesn’t enough to be up there or Rublev. Medvedev is on another level to those players. He has won the most matches this season

 

[UnderratedSlam]

FAA has doesn’t enough to be up there or Rublev. Medvedev is on another level to those players. He has won the most matches this season

Rublev is younger than the Bear. He will be a top 5 player.

 

[Rabin]

Great dude. He has plan A, plan B and plan C all ready to go for when the first ones fail. And the legs. Boy, was I jealous of his legs, some of those gets reminded me of Rafa when he was still a speed demon.

 

[BHud]

Yep. Tonight Med was an honorary member of the big 3 with the way he played.

The trophy generation...he lost! Once again, Big Three owns another season...

 

[BH40love]

Rublev is younger than the Bear. He will be a top 5 player.

Eventually for sure he has the game for it. Still seems a little ways out from that level

 

[Krish0608]

Respect for Mad Lad for putting on such a show yesterday. Crazy! Having said that, it's too early to say if he's the guy who's gonna be the best of the next gen. At 23, He's slightly older than the others. The others are still developing fast. Shapo was very impressive in his 5 set loss to Monfils. Who knows, Med could turn out to be the Hewitt of his era. Very impressive early on, winning a couple of slams, before Roger came of age and blew him off court. It's hard to say how much Med will dominate. I would think that someone like a Shapovalov, if and when he matures, might be the actual star of the next gen. We'll know in the next couple of years. But as of now, congrats to Med for being so awesome.

 

[junior74]

Still lost. 70 winners and you lose? That means you are not very consistent. Too many UE's.

Med W/UE: + 18
Nad W/UE: + 16

 

[Lleytonstation]

Med W/UE: + 18
Nad W/UE: + 16

Well... that does not help my argument...

 

[ibbi]

He was incredible last night. I guess it's sort of been slowly building all year, beginning with how difficult he made life for Djokovic in Australia, and then obviously this whole North American hard court swing has been incredible from him, but I don't think that anybody will have seen the performance last night coming. Especially after the way he lost the Rogers Cup final he really did look easy for Nadal to pick apart, but just as he has done before he solved problems, he changed tactics, he displayed an ability to defend all day and get things back with interest, but also got to net over 70 freakin' times, and he did all this in his first grand slam final, over 5 sets, over like four and a half hours, against a 3 time champion, on the biggest court in the world. That was a ridiculous performance. Like to show all those facets of his game, the physical, and the mental on the grandest of stages in tennis is not something we expect in the mens game anymore, because any time someone is challenged and forced to fight they inevitably fold, for someone with no experience at this level to pull that off is just mad in this day and age. Guts, physicality, and variety of game. The man could save tennis.

Of course the next challenge is one that is maybe even tougher to crack. After you play like this... Can you do it again? Can you hit the reset button, forget about the top of the mountain you just climbed to, and go back to the day to day? Look how far Tsitsipas fell off from the not entirely dissimilar position that he was in during the first half of the year.

 

[Thundergod]

He certainly did a lot better than I thought he would. I'll give him that. The main challenge is keeping up that level throughout the year, year-to-year.

 

[heninfan99]

Serve & volley, Sampras would have won in 3

 

[Djokodal Fan]

Good prospect for tennis, but absolutely boring guy to watch. Good mentality and he may win many slams, but will absolutely kill the game with his style of play.

Nick plays attacking tennis, but for the most part leaves his mind in the locker room before he steps on court. So that's where we are headed

 

[Goret]

[...]
Of course the next challenge is one that is maybe even tougher to crack. After you play like this... Can you do it again? Can you hit the reset button, forget about the top of the mountain you just climbed to, and go back to the day to day? Look how far Tsitsipas fell off from the not entirely dissimilar position that he was in during the first half of the year.

The main difference is that Tsitsipas lost his SF to Nadal in three easy straights, even finishing with a bagel (he did defeat Nadal at Madrid later, but this wasn't a GS tournament...)... and that same Nadal then got destroyed by Djokovic in the final. He never had a single chance of getting close to winning a slam.

Medvedev gave Nadal a tough 5-setter fight, proving he can play in the same league as the Big 3, on the greatest stage. He went much higher than Tsitsipas did.

 

[travlerajm]

The main difference is that Tsitsipas lost his SF to Nadal in three easy straights, even finishing with a bagel (he did defeat Nadal at Madrid later, but this wasn't a GS tournament...)... and that same Nadal then got destroyed by Djokovic in the final. He never had a single chance of getting close to winning a slam.

Medvedev gave Nadal a tough 5-setter fight, proving he can play in the same league as the Big 3, on the greatest stage. He went much higher than Tsitsipas did.

Yes. Tsitsipas didn’t have a plan B when Nadal started taking him to the woodshed.