Medvedev is what I call a "servebot grinder", a new archetype of a player in tennis which emerged with him and Zverev. Players who serve like 6'10 Isner and grind like 5'6 Schwartzman.
Medvedev basically sends this message to his opponents:
"I'm tall, so I serve really well and I'm going win a lot of free points just by serveboting. On my return games, I'm going to have a very deep return position and basically return every serve(daring you to serve and volley, if you are capable enough of doing it repeatedly). When I drag you into a neutral rally, I'm not going to miss(ever) and you will have to come up with something(some consistent brilliance) to win your service games. I'm not giving you anything(+ little pace to work with and redirect), balls are flat, stay deep, low and relatively unattackable(especially cross court backhand). And, on top of that, I defend and move very, very well for a 6'6 guy so I have all the benefits of being tall(serve) and none of the weaknesses(movement).
What are you going to do about it? Nothing?! I thought so. Just hand me the victory and give up, resistance is futile. "
Players then usually just give up and Medvedev dismantles the opponent, his confidence starts growing more and more and opponent falls into despair.
But, if he faces tough resistance and his usual plan of winning matches doesn't come into fruition(which I've described above), he can get pretty rattled and he panics. Mentally can go away, focus decreases, becomes more erratic and uncharacteristically impatient in rallies which leads to implosion - him giving up, basically. Perfect example for this is AO 21 final against his tonight's USO 2023 final's opponent, Novak Djokovic - who dismantled him and put a clinic on how to defeat Medvedev. Medvedev was then on 20-something match winning streak, feeling pretty confident and invincible and Novak made him look like an average player on a hard court in a GS final.
Medvedev basically sends this message to his opponents:
"I'm tall, so I serve really well and I'm going win a lot of free points just by serveboting. On my return games, I'm going to have a very deep return position and basically return every serve(daring you to serve and volley, if you are capable enough of doing it repeatedly). When I drag you into a neutral rally, I'm not going to miss(ever) and you will have to come up with something(some consistent brilliance) to win your service games. I'm not giving you anything(+ little pace to work with and redirect), balls are flat, stay deep, low and relatively unattackable(especially cross court backhand). And, on top of that, I defend and move very, very well for a 6'6 guy so I have all the benefits of being tall(serve) and none of the weaknesses(movement).
What are you going to do about it? Nothing?! I thought so. Just hand me the victory and give up, resistance is futile. "
Players then usually just give up and Medvedev dismantles the opponent, his confidence starts growing more and more and opponent falls into despair.
But, if he faces tough resistance and his usual plan of winning matches doesn't come into fruition(which I've described above), he can get pretty rattled and he panics. Mentally can go away, focus decreases, becomes more erratic and uncharacteristically impatient in rallies which leads to implosion - him giving up, basically. Perfect example for this is AO 21 final against his tonight's USO 2023 final's opponent, Novak Djokovic - who dismantled him and put a clinic on how to defeat Medvedev. Medvedev was then on 20-something match winning streak, feeling pretty confident and invincible and Novak made him look like an average player on a hard court in a GS final.
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