Daniil Medvedev failed to win a single game in his one-sided loss to Matteo Berrettini at the Monte Carlo Masters.
It was the first time in his career he’s lost 6-0, 6-0, making it easily his worst performance since switching coaches last year.
Jamie Murray watched from afar and said he’d have been embarrassed if he’d played like Medvedev did that day.
Soon after, Medvedev spoke to ‘Bolshe‘ about how the match went from his point of view.
Daniil Medvedev left searching for answers after heavy defeat to Matteo Berrettini
“To be honest, basically it’s the same as every year, in training I wasn’t the best on clay, but I wasn’t losing 6-0!” said Medvedev (translated from Russian).
“I don’t really understand what happened.
“I just couldn’t get a hold of anything, or even get a serve in.
“I served well in practice, so it’s unclear what happened, but it seems like nothing can be changed.”
Against Berrettini, he landed just 36% of his first serves.
Asked about what adjustments he tried to make during the match, Medvedev admitted:
“I don’t even know. It was tough to try anything because, in principle, I probably didn’t hit more than two balls into play.
“You can play aggressively or defensively, but if you’re not putting balls in the court at all then no matter how you play, it won’t help.”
“Again I don’t see any reasons [for the performance] for now.”
The former world number one admitted there are times when it’s better to move on rather than dwell too much on a loss.
“It’s clear that you need to try and analyse,” he said. “But is it worth going into too much detail?
“It’s one thing when you lose 6-3 6-3 and try to understand what could have been done better. But when you lose by such a score [6-0 6-0], then you could have done everything better.
Daniil Medvedev’s issues on clay show no signs of improvement
Medvedev’s uneasy relationship with clay courts is well-documented, and nothing about his latest performance in Monte Carlo suggests that will change anytime soon.
For all he’s achieved elsewhere on the ATP Tour, the Russian has never found a way to translate that success onto the red dirt. He has just one title to his name on the surface, that coming back in 2023 at the Italian Open.
The win was something of a surprise at the time, but it hasn’t led to a turnaround in form. Since then, results on clay have remained underwhelming.
There are still plenty of opportunities ahead for Medvedev to get his season back on track. Whether he can make something click remains to be seen.
The Madrid Open is set to start Monday, April 20th, giving him another shot to find some rhythm before Roland Garros arrives in June.
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