The Rise of Daniil Medvedev

At just 26 years of age, Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev is looking mighty strong. He’s currently top of the ATP world rankings above some of the best tennis players who’ve ever lived, including the legendary Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

It might seem to some that Medvedev has come out of nowhere, but he’s been battling it out on the pro circuit for the past seven years. He became world number 1 early in 2022, relegating Novak Djokovic to the second spot.

And it doesn’t look like he’s going to stop winning any time soon. There could well be a handful of Grand Slams coming his way throughout 2022 so you might just want to get in on the action. Those based in New York can check out all the best sports betting sites there to have a punt on Medvedev if they so wish.

Let’s take a brief look at the career of Daniil Medvedev.

The early days of Medvedev

Daniil Medvedev was born in Moscow, Russia, on 11 February 1996. He started playing tennis at six years old, and did well (though not spectacularly) on the junior circuit in 2012 and 2013.

He turned pro in 2014 at the age of 18, making his ATP main-draw debut at the doubles event at the 2015 Kremlin Cup. He continued to slog it out on the professional circuit for the next two years, and eventually reached his first ATP singles final in January 2017, losing to Roberto Bautista Agut at the Chennai Open. At this point, he jumped from 99 to 65 in the world rankings.

Later that year, he registered his first win at a Grand Slam tournament, beating the world number 3 at the time, Stan Wawrinka, at Wimbledon.

His first title

Medvedev’s first ATP title came at the start of 2018, when he beat Australian Alex de Minaur at the Sydney International.

August of that year saw Medvedev win his second ATP title at the Winston-Salem Open, and he went on to win a third that year at the ATP 500 in Tokyo by beating no. 3 seed Kei Nishikori.

At this point, he became the top-ranked Russian player on the tour and reached a career-high 22 in the world rankings. He was on the up, and was starting to turn some heads!

Grand Slam success

Since then, Medvedev’s form continued on its upward trajectory. He reached his first Grand Slam final in 2019, losing to Nadal at Flushing Meadows. He finally achieved his maiden Grand Slam title at the 2021 US Open, in which he beat Djokovic.

In total, Medvedev has won 13 ATP titles. A very impressive portfolio of titles indeed, and it’s only just the beginning!

Becoming world number 1

With many tennis tournaments now mandating that participants are vaccinated against Covid-19, it was clear that Novak Djokovic’s refusal to get vaccinated would impact his world ranking. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before someone would take his position at the top of the ATP leaderboard.

Would it be Rafael Nadal? Not likely. The 35-year-old Spaniard is battling a foot injury and is not able to maintain the sort of consistency that would get him to the top spot. What about Alexander Zverev? Not quite. The young German has every bit of potential to get there one day, but right now, it’s all about one man: Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev clinched the number 1 ranking in 2022, after reaching the final of the Mexican Open. He lost that match to Nadal, but just getting to the final was enough to see him become world number 1 for the first time in his career. A job well done, and a title deserved.

Where does he go from here?

Once you’ve got all the way to the top, what do you do next? You keep on winning, of course. And it looks like Medvedev is going to continue to do that for the foreseeable future at least.

But how long will the talented Russian stay at the top of the charts? As mentioned, Zverev is eagerly waiting in the wings and he is desperate to get to that top position. At 24 years old, the German has a slight age advantage, but it might still be a year or two before he’s able to topple Daniil. Tennis fans are eagerly anticipating another monumental rivalry. We can’t wait to see how these two incredible young players do battle in the future!