One of tennis's most distinctive players, Daniil Medvedev, carves up opponents with impenetrable defense, clever counterpunching, and an even deeper returning position than Rafael Nadal.
Let's take a look at the racket behind the 2021 US Open Champion and former World Number 1. Before Medvedev signed with Tecnifibre early in his career, in 2016, he competed with a Wilson Six-One 95.
A heavy, headlight racket of medium stiffness – normally associated with a more aggressive style of tennis player, but evidently, this setup works well for Medvedev's unique game.
With the specifications of this racket in mind, it is likely Medvedev is using a Tecnifibre Dynacore 305, which formed part of Tecnifibre's line in the mid-2010s, primarily for the 95 square inch headsize that closer matched the Six-One.
Albeit, Medvedev's Tecnifibre frames are extensively customized to bring the mass to approximately 360 grams strung, and a rather low balance of about 31 centimeters. This low balance is a little strange to see in the racket specifications for one of the best two-handed backhands in the world, as typically the balance in this situation would be above 32cm.
In fact, it's far closer to the balance of famed one-handed backhand players such as Roger Federer – which makes this almost certainly a leftover feature of the old Wilson Six-One 95. As a side note, the Dynacore 95 (and by extent Medvedev's custom rackets) also features an unusual 18x19 string pattern, which interestingly also appears in Djokovic's custom Head rackets as of 2018.
During his time in pro tennis, Medvedev has not shied away from switching strings. In his old Wilson racket, he used a Luxilon string, likely the ever-popular ALU Power. Once signed with Tecnifibre, Medvedev's string choice continued to be another high-quality, low-powered polyester, the blue Tecnifibre Razor Code.
In 2019, Medvedev switched to a white version of Razor Code. While the explanation for this is unclear, in all likelihood, a minor difference in feel between the two different colors – much like how playtesters reported a slight difference in feel between the grey and blue versions of Luxilon ALU Power.
Whatever difference there was between the two colors of Razor Code, the benefits of the change were clearly reaped by Medvedev, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the 2019 US Open. By the 2023 season, Medvedev would switch strings again.
This time, a black string that was later released by Tecnifibre during the year as Razor Code Soft: A string that provided similar characteristics to standard Razor Code, but with a more forgiving feel that Medvedev himself credits with providing greater power to his game without sacrificing the degree of control he was used to.
With these new strings, Medvedev went on a 19-match winning streak at the start of the 2023 season, picking up titles in Rotterdam, Doha, Dubai, Miami, and a first clay court title at the Rome Masters event.
But, as of the 2024 Australian Open, Medvedev appears to have changed strings yet again! While the exact setup is uncertain, the stringbed appears to have both Razor Code White and Razor Code Soft in hybrid. This would combine the benefits of both strings at once, enhancing the control of the racket with the Razor Code White, while still retaining a degree of power from the Razor Code Soft.
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