Daniil Medvedev 2025 Season Review: A Year of Troubles

Like most of his 1990s contemporaries, Daniil Medvedev entered the 2025 season in a limbo state. Still a very capable player who could challenge anyone on his preferred surfaces, he was faced with surmounting a considerable gap between himself and the two current flagbearers of the sport: Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

But what ultimately followed fell below expectations, becoming arguably the most challenging year of his professional career, a season marked by early struggles, coaching changes, injuries, and flashes of resilience that showed he still had fight left in him.

Daniil Medvedev 2025 Season Review

Early Setbacks

The year started poorly for Medvedev. After surviving a first-round scare in Melbourne, he crashed out of the Australian Open in the second round against American teenager Learner Tien, marking his earliest exit in Australia since 2018.

The struggles continued between the Australian Open and the Sunshine Double, as he played four tournaments without reaching a single final. Alarm bells rang entering Indian Wells, though he managed a semifinal run, including an epic quarterfinal win over Arthur Fils, but the momentum didn’t last. He was routed by Holger Rune in the last four, undoing much of his good work, and suffered an early exit in Miami, signaling a poor end to the early hard-court season.

Challenges on Natural Surfaces

Even at his best, Medvedev never quite thrived on clay or grass, despite enjoying more success on the latter. While this season he maintained a respectable 6–3 record across the red clay in best-of-three matches and reached the Halle Open final on grass, success at the Majors eluded him. A first-round exit at the French Open, the sixth of his career, and a surprisingly early loss at Wimbledon, where he had previously made back-to-back semifinals, saw his ranking drop outside the top ten.

Confidence waned as his on-court composure suffered, with mental mistakes and unnecessary controversies highlighting a player far from the world #1 he had been three years prior.

A Total Reset

As the tour returned to his favourite hard courts, Medvedev struggled initially, losing five of seven matches, including another early exit at the Majors, this time at the US Open, a tournament he had famously won in 2021. Recognizing the need for change, he overhauled his long-time team, ending his partnership with Gilles Cervara and beginning work with Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke.

The changes brought improvement. Semifinal runs in Beijing and Shanghai restored belief, and in Beijing, he narrowly missed the final due to cramping despite leading a set and a break.

The turning point came in Almaty, where Medvedev captured his first ATP title in over two years after a thrilling three-set victory against Corentin Moutet. This win, coupled with his strong late-season form, gave him renewed confidence and hope for a return to the top tier of the ATP rankings, even if a bid for Turin ultimately fell short.

Looking Forward

2025 was a season in which nearly everything that could go wrong did for Medvedev. He dropped out of the top ten, won fewer than 65% of his matches, and went 1–4 at the four Majors. He faced injuries, team changes, and on-court controversies, yet he persevered, ended a long title drought, and demonstrated that his fight is far from over.

While his physical style may mean his absolute peak is behind him, the resilience he showed in the latter half of 2025 sets the stage for a potential comeback into the top ten in 2026. Medvedev heads into next season with the belief that, if he holds on and continues to work, he can still contend for the titles he was once a favorite to win.