His name is Medvedev. Daniil Medvedev. A human whirlwind of rangy limbs and unorthodox strokes, the world No 2 may not be the most obvious candidate to become the next James Bond, his recent 007-inspired photoshoot for Tatler Russia notwithstanding. But when it comes to the art of eliminating opponents on an indoor hard court, Medvedev has few peers.
The US Open champion’s latest triumph, a 6-4, 6-4 win over Mikael Ymer that sealed a 2-0 Davis Cup win for the Russian Tennis Federation over Sweden, moving the competition favourites into the semi-finals, was his 26th victory in 29 indoor hard court matches over the past year. It is the kind of sharpshooting even Bond would envy.
“I really liked the pictures,” said Medvedev of his 007-like turn alongside his wife, Daria. “The photoshoot was amazing because that’s the first, let’s call it, media-wise thing that we did together with my wife. It was super cool. Shootings can be long. Shootings can be tiring. Shootings can be boring. I usually have not boring ones, but they can be boring. Not this one.”
Medvedev was less happy with his marksmanship against the 94th-ranked Ymer, however, struggling to establish his customary rhythm and fluency on serve. Broken three times, the Russian hit nine double faults and made 20 unforced errors in all, issues he attributed partly to the lengthy hiatus since his side’s 2-1 win over Spain.
“It’s not that easy to serve here because of the high altitude,” said Medvedev after securing his third successive straight-sets win at the finals. “The balls, it’s tougher to control. That’s the first reason, I want to say. Then we had three days off after our last match. I don’t think I ever had three days off in a tournament, so it’s not easy to face it. It was nice, we spend a lot of time with the team, very fun. But to come back to play a match is not easy. It feels like a new tournament.
“But what I was happy with was, when it was in, my first serve, I felt like I had advantage in the point, it was going really fast. Some important aces. Both times at 5-4 I was able to close it out with the serve. We’ll work a little bit on this tomorrow, have a day to work on this. We’re going to do a little bit more on second serve than I usually do. I feel like I’m not somebody who double-faults a lot, even if I try sometimes to go for it.”
Andrey Rublev earlier laid the groundwork for Russia’s progress to a second successive semi-final with a hard-fought 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 over Elias Ymer, Mikael’s older brother. Rublev, the world No 5, served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but was unable to get over the line as Ymer won three consecutive games.
“Serving for the match, I relaxed a bit,” said Rublev. “I shouldn’t do this. When I was up with the break, I missed some easy forehands. Normally, if you’re focused and you’re doing everything right, you’re not going to miss them. So I missed them. In the end, I gave him [a] break. I brought him back into the game. Then he started to believe in himself, he started to play much, much better.”
Ymer showed impressive resilience in the decider, fending off seven break points and playing with an aggression and self-belief that made a mockery of his world ranking of 171, before Rublev finally pulled clear at the death.
“Robin [Soderling, the Swedish captain] and me, we’ve been working these two weeks every day,” said Elias. “He really believes when I’m going for it, I can play with anyone. That’s what he keeps telling me: ‘Elias, really trust your game, because your game is huge.’ Sometimes I feel like I’m not trusting it fully. When I do, I know I can hit winners from everywhere. It’s about going for it more often.
“One game in the third set was amazing. I was hitting, like, three winners right away. I think Robin is helping me a lot to keep going for it, play aggressive, play aggressive. That’s his mindset all the time. I think it’s influenced me very well.”
Following their victory in Shamil Tarpischev’s 100th match as team coach, the Russian team will now face Germany for a place in the final. Medvedev, who is likely to face world No 51 Jan-Lennard Struff – Germany’s top singles player in the absence of Alexander Zverev, who has declined to participate in the Davis Cup since the competition’s format was revamped two years ago – expects a tough challenge.
“I had some tough matches against him this year, both on grass,” said Medvedev, who lost to Struff in Halle this summer before avenging the defeat with a four-set victory at Wimbledon. “Definitely big serve, going to the net a lot. I actually watched him against Cameron [Norrie of Great Britain], almost the whole match, not because we were going to play them but because I was in the room.
“I really liked the way he played because there were some tough moments. [Germany] were 1-0 down. The way he brought the team back was really strong. So I’m expecting a tough battle. Of course, I’m going to prepare tactically and mentally. The further we go, the tougher it is.”