Daniil Medvedev wary of over-preparing for rival Carlos Alcaraz in Cincinnati

FLASHBACK: Medvedev's best Grand Slam result of 2023 came to a thudding end against Alcaraz in the semifinals.

CINCINNATI, Ohio—A month removed from his Wimbledon semifinal defeat to Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev is well aware of where the world No. 1 stands relative to the field, but is preparing for both in equal measure at the Western & Southern Open.

“It’s always a balance,” he mused, fresh off his flight from Toronto, of his practice mentality during his Media Interview on Sunday, “because every time I practice from now on, I can be thinking that it’s Carlos on the other side, so what should I do?

“The other question is that, to get to Carlos, it will probably be the semis or final, and so you need to beat other guys before and I’m not sure if I would play them like I would play Carlos. With Carlos, you have to take a little more risk, but with other guys, I’m not sure. So, it’s always a balance so it’s not like, you’re only thinking about Carlos but then you lose in the first round and you’re thinking, ‘Well, at least I was prepared for Carlos!’’

The 2019 Western & Southern Open winner, seeded third in 2023, indeed won’t have to worry about Alcaraz until the final, drawn into No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic’s side of the draw, but having lost five straight sets to the Spaniard—including a defeat at the BNP Paribas Open final—Medvedev would be forgiven for focusing on his Spanish rival.

“When he plays and we’re sitting in a restaurant looking, we’re not discussing too much like, ‘Did you see this?’ We’re more like fans, looking, and seeing what happens. For example, Tommy Paul, it wasn’t the first time he brought trouble to Carlos, so it can be interesting to see what he does.”

Just as Medvedev looks to learn from Paul, he couldn’t help but throw some light shade at the field for trying to emulate Alcaraz in their matches against him.

It’s always a balance so it’s not like, you’re only thinking about Carlos but then you lose in the first round and you’re thinking, ‘Well, at least I was prepared for Carlos!’ Daniil Medvedev

“It’s also interesting when like, for example, Carlos was doing a lot of drop shots against me in Indian Wells, and then in Miami, I felt like everyone was doing drop shots against me. I was like, ‘Yeah, but you have to do them like Carlos, otherwise I’m there and I hit the winner,’ and I won Miami!”

Into a more serious stage of his pre-US Open preparation, Medvedev will approach his first Cincinnati practice with more data points than were available for him at the National Bank Open, where he fell in a tight two-set quarterfinal to Alex De Minaur.

“When I was practicing in Toronto before the tournament, it’s always different when you come from grass courts and it’s the first [hard-court] tournament,” explained the 27-year-old. “So, I didn’t even expect anything on practice and I was just waiting for the matches to start; that’s when you see how you’re doing with everything.

“Now is when I can say, ‘I had three matches in Toronto,’ and I did feel like I was missing a little bit of shots where I could have put my opponent in trouble. I’m going to try and work on this in the two-three days I have in practice, and hopefully integrate that into the tournament.”

But for Medvedev, who will open against either Dan Evans or Lorenzo Musetti, match play remains paramount as he aims to win as many matches as possible for the US Open.

“The thing is, practice is so different to tournament, “ he admitted with a smile. “You try to work on something in practice, but it really doesn’t matter if you’re not able to do it in the match. Still, that’s what you’re trying to do!”