"Nadal figured him out" - Wilander on reasons behind Medvedev's slow year

Daniil Medvedev has played some excellent tennis but he's lost some matches that he should have won as well and Wilander thinks it's due to Nadal.

Nadal was down on the ropes against the Russian in Melbourne earlier this year but he came back to win that match in five sets. Since then Medvedev hasn't looked the same and was rarely dominant. Many players were able to have success against him as he lost a couple of finals as well.

Wilander thinks it's because Nadal finally figured out how to play him:

“I think that players, they were not really sure how to play against Medvedev. Because he's so awkward to play against. And he's so unorthodox in the way that he hits the ball, the way that he moves, the way that he swings the racket, where he stands in the court, and the way he serves; the tosses all over the place very far in front... I mean, we've never ever seen anything like Medvedev before. And I think that players do not know how to play against him, or at least did not know how to play against him.”

He continued:

“And then he started improving and developing, and he started becoming a little bit more aggressive. So after he beat Novak [Djokovic], he didn't allow the players to start learning how he played because then he started taking the ball a little bit earlier. And sometimes he would play a longer point and stay further back behind the baseline."

On why it stalled, Wilander said:

“And I feel after that he hasn't developed in an aggressive manner, tactically the way that he was developing up to the US Open last year, after the US Open last year, into the Australian Open this year. And then suddenly everything stopped. And I think you're right, I think that he has... Now he's back playing a little bit the way that he used to, and players will figure him out because it's not that complicated."