Medvedev continues Indian Wells complaints as only 10 stars have hope

Daniil Medvedev has claimed that only 10 of his rivals know how to play at Indian Wells after slamming the court conditions. The world No 6 recently compared the courts to clay and slated how slow they were during an outburst in his third-round victory over Ilya Ivashka. Medvedev claimed he would take “25 minutes” for a bathroom break because he would “pee as slow as [the] court is.”

Medvedev has made it clear that he isn’t a fan of the conditions in Indian Wells. The 27-year-old has never made it beyond the round-of-16 in the Californian desert and previously likened the courts to clay at the start of the tournament.

But his grievances increased ten-fold during his match against Ivashka on Sunday, in which he survived a scare to come through 6-2 3-6 6-1 after dropping the second set. The fifth seed threatened to take a lengthy bathroom break as he blamed the pace of the courts, telling umpire Mohamed Lahyani: “I’m gonna 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.”

When the chair official told Medvedev that he had to accept it as a “professional”, the 18-time title winner hit back “I don’t accept this. They say on the fact sheet this is hard courts. This is not hard courts.” And he continued to air his disdain for the conditions in his post-match press conference, claiming that barely anyone could play on the surface.

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“Yeah, very tough, not easy to play here,” Medvedev said when asked about his “letdown” in the second set. The fifth seed then went on to claim that barely anyone had the “quality” to play well in Indian Wells, refusing to name those who could. He continued: “For everyone, for everyone

“I feel like there are, let’s say, 10 players that have the quality, I will not say which one, but to play good here because they have something in their game that can help them. Other than that everyone is struggling.” Referencing some other matches he had seen, Medvedev explained: “You can see a lot of matches 6-1 in one of the sets, and you look at it on TV and you’re like the other one is not playing bad, just few moments. You miss few shots on important moments after 25-shot rally.”

And the world No 6 said that had been the case for him on Sunday, adding: “That kind of was the difference between second and third set. I cannot say I played much better in the third, but managed to be the one not missing after 25 shots but it was more him managed to just be a little bit better on the important moments. Yeah, not easy, but not easy for everyone. Gonna try to continue fighting through this.”

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Medvedev will now face Alexander Zverev in a blockbuster fourth-round clash as the German continues his comeback from a horror injury he picked up at last year’s French Open which ended his 2022 season.  “I think we know each other very well. Every match against such a top player is a new start. Every match he tries to adapt, I try to adapt,” Medvedev said of their match-up.

“I remember he did very well in Turin to beat me. Like he played, first of all, he was serving great, so that’s the key for him. I think he’s a little bit less important here in Indian Wells probably. But I’m sure we’re gonna have a lot of rallies, lots of rallies. It’s gonna come down to who makes, again after like 20 shots, the best shot to try to put your opponent off balance, which is not easy to do here.”

Medvedev thought Zverev wasn’t back to his best yet and wanted to postpone the world No 14’s return to form. “So he’s coming back, he’s playing better and better. I think he’s not yet at where he was when he got injured, but every new match against a top player is an opportunity for him to bring back this level. So I’m gonna have to try to play my best, and postpone it for at least next tournament,” he concluded.

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