In today's 2022 Australian Open men's singles final, Russian "Prime Minister" Medvedev was weak in the first two sets, and finally was reversed by Spain's king Nadal in three consecutive sets, missing his second Grand Slam championship trophy.
Medvedev missed a great record
As Thiem suffered from the "Grand Slam First Crown Syndrome", the 25-year-old Medvedev became a well-deserved leader in the younger generation of men's tennis. In the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, he won two consecutive Grand Slam runners-up, and finally last year at the US Open, the unimpressive Russian man broke through the cocoon and won his first Grand Slam title.
At the Australian Open, because Federer is still far away from the field, and the defending champion Djokovic has not been able to participate because of the strange vaccine incident, Nadal has just recovered from injury, and Medvedev naturally became the first favorite to compete for the title. The odds given by the major bookmakers before the game put him first.
If Medvedev can reach the top of this Australian Open, he will set a great record - the first player in the Open era to win a Grand Slam debut title followed by another victory in the next Grand Slam. This is a feat that even big4 at its peak could not accomplish.
Medvedev had a tenacious performance in the process of advancing to the final to resolve the opponent's match point, which made his prospect of winning the championship more and more optimistic, today's final, with a solid bottom line technology and strong psychological quality, he successfully won the first two sets of the game. Unfortunately, in the face of an opponent like Nadal, any negligence will cause irreparable consequences, Medvedev lost several key points in the third set, the situation was reversed at any time, although he had the strength to break the opponent's tenacious performance in the decisive set to break the opponent's serve to win the championship, but there was still no way to stop Nadal from turning over.
If he wants to become a giant, he still has a flaw to make up
Today's Australian Open final showcases Medvedev's strengths and weaknesses. His serve and bottom line matchmaking ability are the top level of today's men's tennis world, especially his backhand, which has a terrifying lethality that everyone envies. His psychological quality is strong enough, slightly obedient temperament makes him not afraid to make any bold technical and tactical choices on the field, and his comprehensive ability is absolutely worthy of his current world number one ranking.
Perhaps Medvedev's only flaw is change. There are two links in this game that can fully prove this. First of all, he is not used to rushing, even in the face of the opponent's second shot, he will be patient behind the bottom line, perhaps too much trust in his own bottom line strength, so that he lost the courage to take risks. As everyone knows, even the top masters such as Federer and Djokovic will not rely too much on one of their own weapons in the game, and the combination of virtual and real is the most difficult for opponents to prevent.
Secondly, his ability to combine long and short balls is also obviously flawed, his small ball technology is obviously inferior to the bottom line technology, and many times when he comes to the center of the field to face the perfect opportunity to shorten, he will waste opportunities or even self-defeating because of his lack of delicate feel. When facing the opponent's short-term, he often appears to be ill-prepared, and careful fans will find that when Medvedev is at the bottom line, the body's center of gravity is slightly behind, and once the opponent is shortened, his forward running action is always very awkward.
In terms of the current momentum, Medvedev's career achievements will certainly not stop at "one slam", but if he wants to become a member of the giants, at least to reach the height of Murray or Wawrinka, what he wants to fill is still obvious. (Text/Li Tianyou)