Why exactly was the expectation from Medvedev on clay of all places so high?

ForehandCross

G.O.A.T.
I am genuinely baffled at you guys. Medvedev was coming off a long lay off and an injury, lost the only clay match played before RG. The guy's strokes are antithesis to what generally clay requires, I can't believe some folks who have been watching tennis for more then a decade couldn't see it coming.This is clay, just two years ago he used to struggle to win sets on this surface. I am absolutely baffled how people are acting like Medvedev should have made the finals.


Where Medvedev does do well is HC, and his record in HC slams have been phenomenal, From 2019 USO from 6 slams he has won 1 ,made 4 Finals and 1 SF. The only "freak loss" was to a certain Stan Wawrinka in Stan's favorite AO courts.

And for what it's worth, Medvedev's usual season last year looked like F, QF, R4, W that's a solid season for world no. 1. This year too, it will look similar.
 

ForehandCross

G.O.A.T.
And before someone cries about how world no. 1 should play deep into every slam 2012,2013,2014 Nadal says hi. Atleast he isn't getting trounced by no names in R1, R2.
 

ForehandCross

G.O.A.T.
Medvedev is a HC 1 trick pony just accept it and move on bro ... nothing wrong with that

You for real?You even read what I wrote? I explicitly said Med can't do exceptionally well on Clay and grass

Medvedev is the most consistent HC player who gets decent results in the other two slams. That's the case throughout history with every no. 1 not named big 3.
 

Crazy Finn

Hall of Fame
Was there expectations?

I mean he's #2 right now and getting to Round 4 shouldn't be a shock given that. But, he's pretty much been mediocre on non-Hardcourts and he's not exactly a teenager. So, actually, if anything he might have exceeded expectations by getting to the 4th round, even with a #2 seed's draw.
 

MeatTornado

Talk Tennis Guru
Cilic has a pitiful clay resume himself. Med is the world #2 and Marin has been on the downswing for 4 years now. On paper there was no reason he should've lost this match, and that would've put him into the quarters against Rublev, who hasn't been really good on any surface for a while now and is usually owned by Medvedev. Then you're in the semi-finals against an opponent whose never been there before, so you figure he's got a realistic shot to beat any of them.

It wasn't crazy to dream with how awful his half of the draw is.
 

Third Serve

Talk Tennis Guru
It’s a bit of a shock because he looked decent in the first few rounds so to go from that to winning seven games (could have been six) against Cilic is a bit jarring. And Cilic isn’t even that special on the dirt.

Of course, no one should have expected a strong run from Med here in the first place, especially given his complicated history with clay. But losing to Cilic like that is… bleh
 

abmk

Bionic Poster
Cilic has a pitiful clay resume himself. Med is the world #2 and Marin has been on the downswing for 4 years now. On paper there was no reason he should've lost this match, and that would've put him into the quarters against Rublev, who hasn't been really good on any surface for a while now and is usually owned by Medvedev. Then you're in the semi-finals against an opponent whose never been there before, so you figure he's got a realistic shot to beat any of them.

It wasn't crazy to dream with how awful his half of the draw is.

Yeah, good enough indication that Cilic might take Med out (though not this level of beatdown). My post well before the match.

Cilic is a slam winner unlike Dimi.
Also Cilic was 1-6 vs Simon before this, the lone win of course being that 5-setter in USO 14. Simon is a pretty tough matchup for him.
If he can destroy Simon as he has, he can take out Medvedev as well - provided he keeps his head of course..

 

Jokervich

Hall of Fame
Medvedev just can't handle a peak Cilic. He was going to get straight setted at Wimbledon last year until Cilic forgot how to play tennis midway through the 3rd set.
 

dapchai

Legend
He just looked uninterested today, like his head was somewhere else.

Marin played really well and all credits to him, but Med coulda done better to make the scoreline more respectable.

The expectation prolly came from what he did last year at RG. Reached QF and only lost to an in form Tsits, demolished Garin who was a decent claycourter at the time. He also seemed to add some RPMs to his FH which gave his game more margin of errors.

Today was disappointing from him, but still (much) better than his RG record prior to 2021 :D
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
If you don’t play tennis on clay or have never seen Medvedev play in person to see how flat he hits compared to 90% of the top 100, I can see how you can be fooled by his top ranking to over-rate his chances at the FO. You can’t see the difference in topspin or even pace very easily if you watch only on TV. Unfortunately, I think most of the posters on GPPD don’t play tennis or get a chance to see pro tournaments in person.

I’ve noticed that very few of the posters who post often on GPPD post at all on any of the other sub-forums related to equipment, adult leagues, tennis tips etc. meaning that they likely don’t play tennis.
 
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