Tennis isn't my favorite sport aside from 4 times a year. I don't really pay much attention to the minor tournaments and because of time zones, I can't really even get all that excited about most of the global events because I won't stay up until the middle of the night to see most things. However, when Wimbledon is on, we actually get some really good time to watch if you are like me and you don't work typical hours and can be available to watch TV at 3 in the afternoon.
Wimbledon, as I am sure even non-tennis-fans are aware, is one of the largest and most important events of the year and it takes place in England so that makes it 5 hours later (as far as time zones are confirmed) for us here. This is actually a perfect time for me to watch.
My favorite tennis player in Daniil Medvedev and this is for a variety of reasons: For one, he got a lot of flack for his nationality but refused to let it get to him and he was always pleasant towards interviewers even though they were asking him questions that could get him in a lot of trouble if he was to answer the way the reporters want him to. Also, he handles unruly political fans in a similarly polite and professional manner. The last reason is because he is very lanky and unusual physically speaking as far as tennis players are concerned and I find this wildly entertaining.
Last night or for me, yesterday afternoon his match vs world number one Jannik Sinner was something of a bit of a stunner and I enjoyed all 5 sets of it (which is the most they can possibly have at this point)
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A world number 5 knocking out at world number 1 isn't all that unusual, but it is unusual when you consider that Medvedev, undoubtedly one of the best in the world on hard surfaces, tends to struggle on grass and therefore, Wimbledon.
They started things out looking like they were dead even, which to me was impressive for Daniil, but I halfway expected him to gas out because he is carrying around a lot more height than most of the people that he plays against. The first set was really close going to a tie-break at the end where Daniil went up 3-1 on points. But just like any sport that I watch, things turned
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Sometimes I feel as though my own eyes are what is making the things that I don't want to have happen, happen and that is how I felt at the end of that first set when Sinner rallied to win the tie-breaker convincingly 9-7 (you have to win by 2). This is where tennis becomes a mind game that few of us can really understand because it appeared as though the Italian had the Russian rattled coming back to victory when 2 points down including a break.
However, the opposite ended up happening so I am thinking that Daniil has some awesome meditation metheods or something, because he won the next set quite comfortably 6-4. Of course a lot of this has to do with who gets to serve first and that was Medvedev but he also broke Sinner's serve pretty early on, thus kind of securing the set. In set 3 Sinner looked as though he had just let the 2nd set go to preserve energy in order to win set 3, but that ended up going to a tie-break as well but this time, the Russian was the first to 7 winning that tie-break 7-4.
Things got even more stressful in set 4, which if Daniil had kept his form and won it, it would have been the end of the match. I think the tennis gods knew that people like myself didn't have enough stress in my life or something because Sinner skated to a 4th set victory VERY easily, winning 6-2. It looked like it was all over and Daniil was starting to get frustrated as well.
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Every tennis player does it but with Daniil, who I watch the most out of anyone else in tennis, seems to have his game fall apart right around the time that he is smashing rackets and arguing with the officials.
Again though, he must have had his mental game on point because in set 5, I saw some of the best tennis this man has ever played after he turned the tables on Sinner and won the game/set/match in set 5 for the win, 6-3.
The Vegas odds were heavily stacked against Daniil Medvedev both because he us ranked lower than the world number 1 Jannik Sinner, and because he is known for his brilliant hard-surface play, but not so much for exceling on grass.
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He pulled it off though and I don't think very many people gave him much of a chance to win that but in the end he did and this is a massive victory for him as well as a sigh of relief for the other players in the tournament that were probably really hopeful that they wouldn't have to play Jannik Sinner because "he's so hot right now."
But here is why us Medvedev fans shouldn't get too excited just yet
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On Friday, Medvedev will need to return to the main court to play who I consider to actually be better than Jannik Sinner despite his ranking. The young Carlos Alcaraz, provided he is able to stave off injury, is the future of tennis in my opinion and he also, historically speaking, is much better on grass than Daniil.
Now, lets say that Daniil Medvedev is able to shock the world twice and win that one as well, which is just as unlikely as his win today, then he has the added bonus of more likely than not ending up against Djokovic who has won Wimbledon a whopping 7 times in his career including 2018 to 2022 every single time. He is obviously projected to win it this year as well. By sheer luck Nole got the "better" side of the bracket and an easier path to victory and in a lot of people's minds, Medvedev just made that path a lot easier by sending home the world number 1 early.
It's going to be an exciting weekend!