There are things Daniil Medvedev is known for. They include: his serve, his return, his ability to frustrate opponents into submission from somewhere near the back fence, his press conferences and above all else, his deep, sincere, well-documented, spiritually felt hatred of clay courts.
This is not exaggeration. For him it’s not just a casual surface preference that most players express when asked which courts they love. Medvedev’s relationship with clay has always been something more visceral than that, something akin to an ongoing personal dispute that he has been losing, on and off, since he first set foot on the stuff as a professional. He is a hard court player. He will die a hard court player. The clay season is, for him, something to be endured before the real business of the year begins. And yet, here is the curious thing: he has not been entirely terrible on it. He has not been allergic, exactly. He has just been very much himself, which on clay means brilliant one week and bewildering the next, with the occasional result that absolutely nobody saw coming.
The Highlights, The Lowlights, and Everything In Between
Let us start with the crown jewel, because there is one. In May 2023, Medvedev captured his first career title on clay at the Italian Open in Rome, defeating Holger Rune in the final 7-5 7-5. He had beaten Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas to get there. It was his 20th career title and his sixth ATP Masters 1000 crown. It was also, by his own admission, something he had genuinely never believed possible. “Honestly, I didn’t believe much I can win a Masters 1000 on clay in my career because usually I hated it. I hated playing on it,” he said afterward.
Before that, there were glimmers. Back in 2019, competing at the Barcelona Open, Medvedev reached his first clay court final before being defeated by Dominic Thiem. That same year at Monte Carlo he reached the semifinals, which at the time felt like a revelation. In 2021, he reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, which stands as his best result at the French Open and remains the high-water mark of his Paris career.
Then there are the lowlights, and they are spectacular. Medvedev began his Roland Garros career with four consecutive first-round losses. He added more first-round exits later. In 2023, having arrived in Paris as the #2 seed and fresh off winning in Rome, he lost in the first round to Thiago Seyboth Wild, a qualifier ranked 172nd in the world who had never previously won a Grand Slam match anywhere. It remains one of the great upsets in recent Major history. Seyboth Wild compiled 69 winners in the match. Medvedev, to his credit, found a way to be both gracious and entertainingly miffed about it at the same time. He told reporters he lost in the first round of Roland Garros multiple times and that “every time it finishes, I’m happy.” Then he went home and waited for Wimbledon.
Why He Hates It, In His Own Words
The clay quotes are, genuinely, a genre of their own. Medvedev has never shown any interest in pretending to enjoy something he does not enjoy, and the clay season brings out his most expressive self.
“Honestly, there’s nothing I like on clay,” he told reporters ahead of the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters. “There’s always bad bounces, you’re dirty after playing. I really don’t enjoy playing on clay.” He was ranked #2 in the world at the time.
At his post-match press conference following the Seyboth Wild loss in Paris, he delivered what might be his masterpiece on the subject. “I had a mouthful of clay since probably the third game of the match, and I don’t like it. I don’t know if people like to eat clay, to have clay in their bags, in their shoes, the socks, white socks, you can throw them to garbage after clay season. Maybe some people like it. I don’t.”
During a match against Aslan Karatsev in Madrid, he was picked up on microphone asking the chair umpire to default him on the grounds that things could get dangerous for everybody. He has also described his physical appearance as not suiting the surface and said of his clay game, “On clay, I can lose against anybody.” Which, to be fair, he has occasionally demonstrated. He once wrote “love clay” on a courtside camera after winning a match at the Madrid Open, entirely ironically.
Even his modest improvement on the surface has been explained in terms that suggest begrudging tolerance rather than genuine affection. “Before I hated playing on clay, two to three years ago,” he said in 2024. “Before the clay, I was motivated and excited and then I came and played and I was a little depressed for a couple of days and then I tried to handle it.” Progress, of a kind.
Where We Are Now
Medvedev is now 30 years old and has had roughly a decade of professional clay seasons to make his peace with the surface. He has made, at most, a negotiated ceasefire. He has won in Rome, reached semifinals and quarterfinals of the French Open, and has proven that when his game is firing and the stars align, he can compete with anyone on red dirt. On the other hand, he has also lost to qualifiers in the first round of Roland Garros more times than a man of his ranking has any business doing.
The honest conclusion is that clay has never been and will never be Medvedev’s home. But even a reluctant guest can occasionally make a good impression at a dinner party. He showed up, he mostly tried, he won Rome, and he ate a mouthful of clay and told us all about it in vivid detail. That, in its own way, is a body of work worth celebrating.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
