Daniil Medvedev Up And Running In Wimbledon With Easy Win Over American

The 5th seed, Daniil Medvedev, kicked off his Wimbledon challenge with a first-round clash against Aleksandar Kovacevic. The Russian overran the American, winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Daniil Medvedev hit 16 aces to the American’s nine, converting 81% of the points contested on his first serve. He was also ruthless on return, converting four of eight breakpoint opportunities. 

It was a great match, to be honest. The first match is never easy and there were moments in the match when it was not as easy as the score would suggest. So I’m really happy with my level and I’ve still never lost on Court 1, so hopefully I can play a lot more matches on this court.

This is the fourth consecutive tournament that Aleksandar Kovacevic has made it out of the qualifiers stage and been knocked out of the first round. 

Medvedev Prefers Best Of 3 Sets Format

In an interview, Daniil Medvedev was asked if he’d prefer Wimbledon and other Grand Slam matches change back to a best-of-three-sets format instead of the best of five. The Russian favored the shorter format, citing potential injury issues as his major concern. 

I think five sets is much tougher for the body, so can get more injuries. From what I hear from many people on TV, okay, if you have a crazy five-setter that goes five hours, it’s great and it stays in history. But if it’s like a little bit up-and-down four-setter that goes for 3 hours 30, I think many people stop watching it from time to time and they go in and out.

Look, I always said that I completely, like, understand it. I think it’s very spectacular and good. If you ask me, I would prefer three sets. That’s just my personal opinion. I don’t even have, like, a valid explanation for this. Just how I want it.

Recently, Novak Djokovic got injured in the fourth round of the French Open in a match against Francisca Cerundolo. The match ended up lasting over four hours and went the entire five sets. 

But what is true, is that it makes it much more intense mentally, physically. Again, like the Australian Open I did this year, was a pretty special memory because of the five sets I won. So yeah…

Greatest Tennis Matches Of All Time 

Daniil Medvedev is right here since some of the greatest tennis matches of all time were five-setters that went the distance. In the last 20 years, there’s hardly any list of some of the top-ranked tennis matches of all time that won’t include the Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer Wimbledon 2008 men’s final, and the Novak Djokovic vs Roger Federer Wimbledon 2019 final which lasted four hours and 57 minutes. It is the longest singles final in the history of the tournament, and the third-longest Grand Slam final. 

Daniil Medvedev himself was involved in a five-set classic in the 2022 Australian Open final. He had the match 2-0 after winning the first two sets against Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard then won the next three sets to complete a famous comeback.