Daniil Medvedev, Russia’s No. 1 tennis player, on Monday signed caps and tennis balls for fans in his native city of Moscow, hours after landing from China, where he won the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
After a period in the doldrums, Russian tennis is infused with a new generation of young male players and Medvedev, 23, is leading the pack, now at a career-best of fourth in the world.
Tired after a long flight and admitting to surviving on coffee, Medvedev posed for selfies with fans.
“I do feel there’s a lot of support coming from Russia. It’s huge and it’s great,” he said. “A lot of support coming from social media [and] support from my friends, because most of my friends are still Russian guys.”
Fans hailed his influence.
“The main thing is that tennis is becoming more popular in Russia thanks to him,” said one fan, 19-year-old student Daniil Trefilov.
Trefilov hopes to watch Medvedev play in the city’s Kremlin Cup this week — Medvedev said he would decide yesterday whether he would participate.
Another fan, David Umarkhadzhiyev, who leads an online group of Russian supporters, said that he “fell in love with the game” from watching Medvedev play.
“After [Marat] Safin and [Yevgeny] Kafelnikov, there was a kind of stagnation,” Umarkhadzhiyev said, referring to top players of past decades. “There were no men and suddenly one or two years ago, Medvedev, [Karen] Khachanov and [Andrei] Rublev appeared.”
“We have a great competition between us three guys and we really push each other,” Medvedev added.
Speaking fluent English and French as well as Russian, he looks tanned and relaxed, but his eyes sometimes half-close from fatigue.
Beyond rivalry with fellow Russian players, Medvedev is challenging the Big Three in men’s tennis: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
“These guys are just from another planet. We have to admit it — they are really strong and we are trying our best to beat them,” he said.
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