Daniil Medvedev had probably the best start of the season in his career, yet it came to a halt suddenly.
After an early Australian Open loss, the 27-year-old seemed to be unbeatable. He won three consecutive ATP titles and played five consecutive finals, winning four of them. Medvedev was simply steamrolling past everyone, and even he called the season start the best ever.
Surprisingly that continued even on the clay courts, where he won his first-ever ATP 1000 title on the red dirt. But after winning the title, he experienced a shocking loss at the Roland Garros, losing already in the first round.
Entering the grass-court part of the season, Medvedev could be confident again and forget his previous loss. At the 2023 Libema Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, he was the first seed and after a bye in the first round, he started against Adrian Mannarino from France.
In the first set, it seemed that Medvedev forgot the previous upset, breaking his opponent's serve twice, while hitting five aces and winning 92% of points after his first serve. Thanks to that, he won the opening set 6-4, and proceedings seemed to be going as planned.
But in the next two sets, Mannarino found a way to deal with his opponent's serve. The Russian's percentages radically dropped, and the Frenchman was able to trouble him quite often on his serve.
Medvedev couldn't find any response and after two hours, he experienced another shocking loss in his first match at the tournament. The World No. 3 lost 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, and he will need to switch his focus once again.
The Russian will be allowed to compete at Wimbledon once again, and that will be his focus for the grass-court season as he has a chance to overtake Novak Djokovic as the World No. 1 and reclaim the spot again.
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