The irony was palpable. All week long, Daniil Medvedev has been raging about the slow pace of the Stadium 1 court at Indian Wells. Finally, an hour and 40 minutes into an epic battle with Alexander Zverev, the court bit back, an awkward fall behind the baseline threatening to do what Zverev could not by ending what is now a 17-match winning streak for Medvedev.
The court that Medvedev has so relentlessly and comically derided this week may yet have the last laugh. The former world No 1 said afterwards that he would have a scan to determine the extent of the damage before deciding whether to contest his quarter-final against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
There was visible swelling below Medvedev’s right ankle in the moments after he slipped, rolling the joint outwards and twisting his groin awkwardly as he attempted to change direction midway through the second set.
“Now that I have cooled down, it’s big,” said Medvedev, the fifth seed, following his 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 victory. “I cannot walk properly. But if everything is fine, I’m going to tape it tomorrow, take one painkiller, and go to play. So not much more to add for the moment. Pretty painful, but nothing too bad hopefully.”
Should he fail to make the starting line, the tournament will lose more than just the most successful player on the men’s tour over the past month. Medvedev’s antics have made him the hottest ticket in town this week, the Russian filling the comedic void left in the absence of last year’s Ben Stiller-Nick Kyrgios double act. In the previous round against Ilya Ivashka, Medvedev told the chair umpire he was going to “pee as slow as this court is, so you can take 25 minutes”.
“The court is slow, so I go slow, I take my time,” Medvedev continued, to general amusement.
Every good humorist strives to refine their routine, and that outburst proved merely an early sketch for the diatribe Medvedev delivered after losing the first set to Zverev on a tiebreak.
“It’s a disgrace to sport, this court,” he thundered as Renaud Lichtenstein, the French umpire, squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.
“We should be banned from playing here. A fricking disgrace to the sport, this fricking court. And they call it hard courts! What a shame to call this awful court a hard court.
“I’ll go to the toilet but I don’t care, give me a time violation, I’ll be as slow as this court again. I don’t care, give me five time violations, I’ll go in one minute.
“If they allow us to play on such a court, I can allow myself to do whatever I want.”
The one thing Medvedev could not do, with Zverev producing the finest tennis he has played since returning from the devastating ankle injury he suffered at Roland Garros last year, was establish the kind of control that recently carried him to a hat-trick of titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. After an early exchange of breaks, Zverev’s superior ability to hit through the slow conditions gradually began to tell. His willingness to take the ball on was particularly apparent against the second serve, behind which Medvedev had only a 40% success rate. As a result, the Russian spent much of the opener scrambling across the baseline, locked in a relentless cycle of retrieving and counter-punching.
It remained a desperately tight affair – predictably so, given that a dozen previous meetings between the pair had been evenly shared – and at 5-6 Medvedev needed all his powers of escapology, saving three set points against his serve to force a tiebreak. But there was to be no reprieve when an overcooked forehand brought up another two set points for Zverev, the German seizing the initiative with a neat serve and volley to send his opponent into meltdown.
With Zverev the more natural aggressor, Medvedev’s injury midway through the second set proved, paradoxically, a blessing in disguise, forcing him to go for bigger shots in an effort to shorten the points. Moving gingerly at first, and then with increasing freedom as he grew accustomed to the taping on his ankle, Medvedev fended off a total of 10 break points in the set. By the time he reached the tiebreak, he was to be found launching himself at a high-bouncing ball from fully 10ft behind the baseline, pulling off an extraordinary overhead that flew past the stunned Zverev at the net. The shot immediately drew comparison with a similarly outrageous effort from Roger Federer against Andy Roddick in Basel in 2002.
“I saw some comments about Federer’s overhead,” said Medvedev, who quickly went on to level the match. “I was like, ‘Which one?’ Then I remembered the one against Roddick. His one was tougher, because he was on the run and out of the court. But if I remember right, the moment was a little bit less tight, in a way, because we had 1-1 in the tiebreak and I was one set to love down.
“I got lucky that he put the ball where I was standing. I’m also lucky that the courts here are slow, so I could actually hit it and it didn’t go over my head. The timing, the position of the ball was perfect, so I managed to kind of, in a way, hit the serve, but from a very far position. Only thing I said to myself, ‘Just hit it full power, there is no other choice.’ I hit it crosscourt. It was an amazing shot.”
Medvedev broke in the third game of the decider, Zverev screwing a forehand wide after the Russian had set up the opportunity by sprinting to retrieve a drop volley. As if to rub salt into the wound, Medvedev went on to consolidate the advantage with a stunning forehand pass on the run. It almost made a mockery of the notion that the Russian was injured, although he plainly was.
Zverev conjured one final act of defiance, saving a match point as he broke to level at 5-5, but there was to be no way back when he double-faulted – for only the third time in the three hour, 17 minute contest – at break point down in the next game.
“It was very surprising, it was much easier to move, to run, than to walk,” said Medvedev of his injury after advancing to the last eight in the California desert for the first time. “So when I was walking, I was limping, but then I was running fine. I can understand how frustrating it is for the opponent, but I was not faking, it was tough.”
It was tough on Zverev, too, who deserves credit not only for a fine performance but also for the concern he showed for his stricken opponent after a moment that must have sparked all kinds of unwelcome flashbacks to last summer, when he collapsed in agony after tearing his ankle ligaments against Rafael Nadal in Paris. On this evidence, Zverev is on track for a swift return to the top five.
As for Medvedev, fitness allowing, the stage remains his for now. Prepare to be entertained.