Like many a Muscovite, together with Rublev, Medvedev grew up enjoying a lot of the yr in quick indoor situations.
“It was not even hardcourts — it was extra like indoor ice,” Rublev mentioned with fun on Saturday. “You contact the ball and the ball is sort of a rocket. You hit one ball and the ball goes so quick, even if you find yourself 6 years outdated. In Moscow, there’s really loads of clay, however the issue is there’s not a lot summer season, solely two or three months, so that you don’t get a lot time to play on it.”
Rublev, the No. 7 seed and lengthy based mostly in Spain, has had extra constant outcomes on clay on the professional stage and was a quarterfinalist on the French Open in 2020 and a finalist on the Monte Carlo Open final yr. His forehand, hit with heavy topspin and main racket-head pace, suits the normal imaginative and prescient of a clay-courter far more than Medvedev’s along with his comparatively flat strokes.
However it is extremely tempting to agree with Rublev that Medvedev’s greatest impediment on clay is between the ears.
“He didn’t beat Djokovic in Monte Carlo for nothing,” Rublev mentioned in an interview, recalling a 2019 upset. “So, I feel it’s extra about him, that he put this in his head, than it’s concerning the clay. And we are able to all see now that he has received all of the matches right here fairly straightforward, beating good gamers.”
Nonetheless, the trail doesn’t get smoother. Medvedev is in a extra welcoming neighborhood than the highest half of the draw, however it’s nonetheless a tough neighborhood with Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud all on the prowl.
Subsequent up for Medvedev: the No. 20 seed Marin Cilic, who overwhelmed a weary Gilles Simon, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2, on Saturday within the 37-year-old Simon’s remaining French Open match (he’ll retire at yr’s finish). Simon, one of many cleanest hitters and deeper thinkers on tour, gave a superb abstract of why it is going to quickly be time to bid adieu.
