Daniil Medvedev's war on clay continues, but it may provide him an advantage down the road

I hate to lose. I like winning, but I still don’t like clay. Daniil Medvedev, after a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7) win over clay-proficient Alexander Zverev in a marathon round-of-16 clash this April in Monte Carlo

Daniil Medvedev wants everyone to be clear on one thing: he dislikes clay. He has shown his contempt for the surface by kicking at the innocent red dirt, begging a chair umpire to default him, and actually laughing out loud last year when he found himself seeded higher for the French Open than Rafael Nadal.

Okay, a lot of other people laughed at that one, too.

But the point here is that Medvedev’s aversion to clay is unusual. He has shouted it from the rooftops and, when pressed, went into vivid detail about his contempt for the terre battue. During one match at a recent Italian Open, he was heard muttering, “If you like to play in the dirt like a dog, then I don’t judge.” More lately, after kicking off this year’s campaign in Monte Carlo with a 6-3, 6-2 beatdown of clay savvy Italian Lorenzo Sonego, Medvedev’s reaction was the equivalent of a shrug. He said, “It's difficult for me to say if I played well or not, but I was told I played well, and the score was okay with me.”

Even for Medvedev, that was a little much. The 27-year old hard-court wizard seems to enjoy perpetuating the theme that his game and confidence on clay are equally shaky. His pronouncements violate the unwritten tennis taboo against honestly expressing your most sincere feelings and anxieties—but in the long term Medvedev’s war on clay may be providing him some advantage. It can lull opponents into complacency, or wrongly suggest a greater degree of vulnerability.

This is called sandbagging, an art that is right up the alley of a clever and complicated customer like Medvedev. Ploy or not, his tale of woe it is working.

A closer look at his record suggests that Medvedev may find it hard to sustain his antipathy toward clay. He’s just 22-25 for his career in ATP clay events, thanks partly to a poor start in which he won just two of his first 13 matches. More recently, he’s 12-7 since the 2020 French Open (including a 2-1 run in Madrid, where on Tuesday he was eliminated in the round of 16 by Aslan Karatsev) He’s 7-2 at the last two French Opens. He’s a much improved player on clay, and it’s no wonder.

There’s a lot of malarkey surrounding the clay-court game, much of it having to do with the importance of sliding—especially sliding into shots that might otherwise spell disaster for the returner.

“If you can’t slide, good luck,” ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert, a staunch believer in sliding, told me recently. “Some like to do the California slide, where you slide after you hit the ball. Some slide into open-stance shots on the run. It’s crucial that you know how to slide into shots, though. It’s a skill in and of itself.”

But bear in mind that Roger Federer, the second-best clay-court player behind Nadal for many years, was not much of a slider, and he appeared in five French Open finals in six years (from 2006 to 2011, winning just once, in 2009). You can put Federer’s success down to his movement, particularly the balletic, quick footwork that helped him compensate for what he may have lacked in sliding aptitude.

Medvedev is one of the best and most adaptable of movers on the tour, a quality that is very useful on a surface that presents less of a true bounce than hard courts. Small divots and other inconsistencies on a clay court often lead to bad bounces, but as champion-maker coach Rick Macci said of the way Medvedev can manage to hit great shots from extremely awkward positions, “He’s so far down the road, mentally and with movement, that he’s just off the charts when it comes to how he plays.”

While sliding remains a valuable skill, the game has changed in ways that may diminish its importance—and help Medvedev’s quest to master the clay.

“It’s true that there’s no longer a ‘clay style,’” Gilbert said. “The grass is slower now, the clay is faster, but it’s still so important to learn how to build points. That’s a special discipline and it’s invaluable.”

Medvedev, very much a baseliner, has shown an aptitude for that discipline with his success on hard courts, which can be even slower than some clay courts. In the second round of Madrid, he posted an impressive, gritty win over the talented protege of coaching legend Gunter Bresnik, Alexander Shevchenko.

A closer look at his record suggests that Medvedev may find it hard to sustain his antipathy toward clay.

Medvedev eked out the win, 7-5 in the third set. Afterward, he declared to reporters that he had played a “great match,” but suggested that, had it been on hard courts, “the score could have been easier.” He went on to grouse about how it may be easier to keep the ball in play on clay, but variables like bad bounces figure larger.

“Breakpoint,” he said. “It can be a bad bounce for anyone and you win the point just because of this. Hopefully it's for you.”

Still, Medvedev may soon find himself struggling to maintain his war on clay. His attitude appears to be softening, and is likely to change even more swiftly with success. Perhaps that was why he added, “I had to struggle [against Shevchenko]. It was tough. But I want to try to just do my best. Monte-Carlo was great. Here is great already, and I'm looking forward for next matches.”

It looks like the sand may be leaking out of the bag.