Andrea
Petkovic asserted that the presence of
Carlos Alcaraz and
Jannik Sinner on the
Tour overshadows
Daniil Medvedev as the main star. According to the former
German tennis player, despite Medvedev having remained one of the best for the
past 5 years, the younger players have an advantage in scheduling.
Medvedev
has already reached world No. 1 and won a Grand Slam at the 2021 US Open, but
he is not usually favored in scheduling decisions for tournaments. For example,
his second-round victory at the Australian Open against Emil Ruusuvuori
garnered attention for ending almost at 4 am in Melbourne with very few
spectators.
Petkovic, a
former world No. 9, appeared on The
Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast with the
renowned former coach of Serena Williams. Petkovic expressed her opinion that
Sinner and Alcaraz will always have an advantage over Medvedev regarding
scheduling for prime-time audiences.
"He is
in the worst position, he's the number 3 in the world and he's always been
number 2 or 3 in the world, which means there's one big star, it's Novak or now
Sinner or it was Alcaraz for a while who always get the prime time 7 pm
schedule. But he's still a big star, so you put him in a slot where you're not
sure whether people will show up, but because it's Medvedev, they will," Petkovic
said..
"Even
if he is number 1 in the world, as long as there's Alcaraz and Sinner, he'll
always be just the next big star. It's unfortunate," she added.
Unfavourable
scheduling has been a recurring issue for Medvedev throughout the past few
years. As revealed by Stubbs herself, on several occasions, the Russian was
scheduled for the last session after Serena Williams' matches:
"I
don't know about you Petko, but at the Australian Open, at the US Open last
year, and again at Indian Wells, that skinny motherf**ker gets the worst
schedules. He gets the worst schedules every time," Stubbs said.
"When
Serena played and I was coaching Serena, he was on after Serena every single
match at the US Open, 2 or 3 years ago, whenever it was. And we'd see each
other the next day, and I was like 'Dude, sorry about the schedule again' and
he's like 'Aah it's Serena, it is what it is'."