Novak Djokovic gives up first place in the ATP world rankings to Russian Daniil Medvedev | Other Sports | sports

The misfortune of some causes the happiness of others: losing on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Dubai tournament, Novak Djokovic ceded the throne of number one in world tennis to Daniel Medvedevwhich will occupy that position on Monday, when the new classification is published.

A wait of days to see his name at the top, but a goal that the Russian has built with years of work, becoming the leader of the generational relay in racket sport.

“It’s not easy to play a match when you hear that news during the day,” said Medvedev, who in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Acapulco (Mexico), far from Dubai, defeated 6-2 and 6-3 on Thursday at Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka.

At 26 years old, he somehow puts an end to the ‘Big 4 era’: since 2004 the number one in the ATP had been occupied by Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray.

The last months are being those of the absolute confirmation of Medvedev.

In September 2021 he defeated Djokovic in the final of the US Open, to achieve his first Grand Slam title, and in January he almost lifted the trophy at the Australian Openbut lost in the last match against Nadal.

Then he missed the chance to become the first player of the ‘Open era’ (since 1968) to win his first two Grand Slam titles consecutively.

He was mad

It was a little by accident that the lanky Russian almost two meters tall was seen with a racket in his hand at the age of 9. When taking him to swimming lessons, his mother Olga saw an advertisement for tennis courses, and his father Sergey, a computer engineer, supported the idea of ​​signing him up.

At that time he did not know the high budget for rackets, and that little Medvedev would show himself as a nervous wreck in his first forays on the court.

“I was crazy!”, he admitted to L’Equipe in 2019. “They can’t imagine how he was until he was 19 years old… Towards the age of ten I did anything on the track”.

“He was screaming, crying, breaking rackets… Everything you can imagine he did. I didn’t like being like this. From the age of 14 he could lose many games because of that attitude. And after each defeat turned him around for a long time”, he explained.

After studying Physics, Mathematics and then Commerce, this ‘FIFA’ video game lover devoted himself entirely to tennis. And his parents with him, since the family moved with him to France in 2014, where he met his current coach.

Strong character

Medvedev was still an unknown on the circuit in 2017, when he contested his first Wimbledon with a great performance. Defeated in the second round by a Belgian, Ruben Bernelmans, he tossed coins at the foot of the chair umpire to contest a ruling.

But, he ended up understanding, later, that this attitude did not help him. Just before the 2019 US OpenMedvedev explained having turned to a psychologist to help him channel his emotions.

“It often works. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a game where I’m going to go completely crazy all of a sudden,” Medvedev said.

Precisely that happened in the US Open of that year. against the Spanish Feliciano Lopezqualified under jeers after rudely grabbing a towel from a ballboy and throwing it to the ground, throwing his racket towards his chair and making an ugly face at the television camera.

“Thank you all, the more you whistle at me, the more energy you give me”, declared the Russian tennis player.

“I have been an idiot. I’m working on becoming a better person on the court,” she later apologized.

The whistles did not stop until the final, in a titanic fight that he finally lost to Nadal.

Now cooler, more mature and more focused, Medvedev has risen to the top of the world rankings. (D)