Daniil Medvedev nearly beat Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final earlier this year, but despite losing, he's not fearing him as an opponent.
Sinner looks pretty scary right now but even so, Medvedev doesn't fear him. The Russian generally didn't have any problems with the Italian before but he started to have serious problems in the last few matches they played.
The first time he ran into problems was in Beijing last year. That was a final, and Sinner won it. The second time was in Vienna, and Sinner won that final, too. The third time was at the ATP Finals, and the fourth time was another final, and it was a big one - the Australian Open.
Medvedev played it really well, taking a 2-0 lead in sets, but then simply couldn't finish it off. He was asked about it at the 2024 Dubai Championships and responded that the difference in Sinner is that he is simply not missing as much as before. The style is the same.
"To be honest, he just plays better. Maybe the first match in Beijing when he managed to beat me for the first time, he mixed up some things comparing to before. Then in the next matches I just feel like he plays better than before."
"Before the matches were tough when I won them, but he could miss here and there, break point, miss a first serve, a forehand straightaway. Now it doesn't happen anymore. Mentally, well, I honestly don't feel like I'm let's call it scared or anything like this."
He's not wrong because Sinner's game doesn't look all that different. His serve is overall better, and he's far more stable with his baseline play and doesn't miss as much, and sometimes that's just enough.
That's the difference between a Top 10 player and a player that wins Grand Slams regularly.
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