Daniil Medvedev likes to play tennis, but he's not always keen on playing as much as he had to at this year's Australian Open.
The Russian is an excellent tennis player, but sometimes being excellent is not good enough because there are many other great players. Medvedev played a few of them at this year's Australian Open, and they took him the distance in most of these matches.
He had to play four five-setters, which ultimately allowed him to break a record. It's not the type of record you like to break because on surface value, yes, it's a record, but it doesn't denote anything positive.
Making the final is that allowed it to happen, which is good, but it also shows that he struggled through most of his matches. His first-round match was a four-set win over Terence Atmane.
His second-round match was a win over Emil Ruusuvuori, but it took him five sets. Next up was Felix Auger-Aliassime, and that was a three-set match, which is the only one that went to three sets.
The fourth round was a win over Nuno Borges in four sets. After that, fans saw him battle Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals, and that, too, was a five-set match. The semi-final win over Alexander Zverev was also a five-set match, and the final against Jannik Sinner was another five-set match.
Combined, that's 31 sets, the most by any player during a Grand Slam run. He also became the first Grand Slam finalist to play in at least four five-set matches. That's just a lot of tennis, and it hurt him in the final because he started very well but then faltered as the match went on.
It would have been iconic if he won the tournament, but he didn't. Yet, the Russian joked that he's happy to hold at least some record.
"At least I got a record in something. I'm in the history books for something. Let's take it. (Laughter.)"
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