Daniil Medvedev withdrew from the 2023 Barcelona Open as a packed schedule took a toll on his body.
No one played as many matches as Medvedev in 2023. The Russian competed in 35 ATP Tour matches this year, winning on 31 occasions. That makes him the player with most matches played as well as the player with most wins. And it's not even close as second Jannik Sinner won 24 of 29 matches and third Taylor Fritz 19 of 24.
Medvedev was very active, especially over the past couple of months. He kicked off his winning run with triumph in Rotterdam, then he followed with triumph in Doha and Dubai, before being stopped in the 2023 Indian Wells final by Carlos Alcaraz.
However, that didn't stop Medvedev as he went on to win the 2023 Miami Open, before moving to clay. At the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters, he reached the quarterfinals but he was stopped by Holger Rune as he had little time to prepare for the match after finishing his third-round match close to midnight on the previous day.
All of that took toll on the Russian's body and after the first ATP 1000 clay-court event of the year, he made a decision to skip the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona to be ready for the upcoming Madrid Open and Italian Open, which are both ATP 1000 tournaments. Announcing his withdrawal from the Barcelona Open, he said:
“I’m really sorry I won’t be able to play Barcelona this year. I have amazing memories from the last time I played in 2019. I hope to be back next year and hopefully play good there.”
Last year, he was forced to skip almost the full clay-court season as he underwent a surgery, so this year presents a unique opportunity for him to add to his ranking points and improve his chances of becoming the world no. 1 again. On Monday, Medvedev is projected to be fourth in the ATP Rankings, but he's first in the 2023 ATP Race.
0 Comments