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No 2 seed Daniil Medvedev refused to blame the courts in Shanghai for his surprise third-round loss to Sebastian Korda. After beating Cristian Garin in his Shanghai opener on Saturday, Medvedev complained that the hard courts in Shanghai were very slow.
The following day, Medvedev was back in action but this time suffered a 6-7 (8) 2-6 loss to Korda. After the loss, Medvedev was directly asked if he felt the courts were to blame for his loss. “Korda played well. I should have won the tiebreak but I didn't.
That's the biggest difference… It’s not all about the court, but I think the conditions maybe favored him a little bit. He was fast enough to hit winners, but slow enough to have time to set up his shot. So I think yes, it was good for him.
I got used to it by playing yesterday. Today I also played better than yesterday. Yes, a court will always favor one player more than the other, but I don't think I lost because of that," Medvedev said after losing to Korda, via The Tennis Letter.
Daniil Medvedev was asked if he lost to Korda because of the slow court conditions:
“Korda played well. I should have won the tiebreak but I didn't. That's the biggest difference… It’s not all about the court, but I think the conditions maybe favored him a little bit.He was… pic.twitter.com/7SZPd1HNBc — The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) October 8, 2023
Medvedev feels the courts in Shanghai used to be faster
In 2019, Medvedev won his first Shanghai title after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.
This year, Shanghai returned to the calendar for the first time since 2019. After playing his first match in Shanghai in four years, Medvedev shared that he feels the courts at the tournament used to be faster. "To go back-to-back tournaments so fast, different balls, different surface.
So that's very tricky. Before (Shanghai) was probably one of the fastest (courts) on the Tour. Now I don't know where's slower, here or (in) Indian Wells. So, yeah, it is what it is. Have to play like this. I mean I managed to, even on slow hard courts this season to play well, so that's what I'm going to do," Medvedev said after his opening win in Shanghai. Medvedev will now turn his focus to an ATP 500 event in Vienna, which starts on October 23rd.