Twenty-one and not done: The changes fuelling Daniil Medvedev’s revival

Towards the end of a season of uncharacteristic struggles for Daniil Medvedev, the former world No.1 is rediscovering a winning formula.

The self-proclaimed “hard-court specialist” had failed to reach a hard-court final in 2025 until last week’s ATP 250 event in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he went all the way to a 21st career title with a 7-6(3) 6-4 win over Corentin Moutet.

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Although Moutet won their Almaty final rematch in Vienna this week, Medvedev has been starting to show signs of a resurgence thanks to 13 wins and four losses since the US Open.

The spike in form caught the attention of Olympian and Australian Open 2020 doubles finalist Luke Saville, who noted the 29-year-old is starting to regain that hard-court dominance he displayed for so much of this decade.

“It’s been a tough little period for Medvedev; he’s been struggling a little bit and obviously changed up his team a little while ago – but now [he’s] playing well again,” Saville noted on this week’s episode of The Tennis.

“Twenty-one titles in 21 different cities is quite a stat.”

A tournament champion for the first time since Rome in 2023, Medvedev extended his unique record of never winning the same tour-level event twice.

In his most challenging year to date, Medvedev has had to change things up to recapture that winning feeling.

The 2021 US Open champion was defeated in the opening round in New York for the first time since his maiden campaign in 2017, marking his third consecutive first-round exit at Grand Slam level.

For a player fans grew accustomed to seeing in the final days of Grand Slams, the result was a shock to the system – and a sign he needed to reconsider his career approach and set-up.

Splitting with long-time coach Gilles Cervara and fitness coach Eric Hernandez following the US Open, Medvedev has since been working with dual coaches Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke.

Upon making this switch, he reached at least the quarterfinals in his next four tournaments.

“I spoke to Matt Reid, who’s the coach of Alex de Minaur, and he said [Medvedev is] playing a little more aggressive, they played in the quarters of Shanghai the week before,” Saville said.

“I think it’s just great how Medvedev has done so much and is so accomplished but is still willing to make those improvements to his game and it’s starting to show.”

Predominantly a baseliner, Medvedev was efficient in the way he approached the net in that Shanghai quarterfinal, winning 14 out of his 16 net points against De Minaur.

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In Almaty the following week, he blasted 34 winners in the final and comfortably led the winners tally over his opponents in his last three match victories at the event.

This newly-aggressive approach appears to be among the factors in Medvedev’s rejuvenation, and since falling to world No.18 after the US Open he has improved his ranking to 14th.

It will be fascinating to see whether he can keep rising and restore his status as one of the tour's most consistent threats.

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