Daniil Medvedev reflected on his defeat to Sebastian Korda in the Round of 32 at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, reviving discussions about the slow courts at the ATP 1000 tournament despite insisting that the court was not the reason he lost.
The second seed looked to be on form ahead of his match with the World No. 27, having reached the final of the China Open in Beijing last week where he finished as runner-up to Jannik Sinner. Medvedev then opened his campaign at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena with a straight-sets win against Cristian Garin.
However, his run in Shanghai turned out to be a short one after the World No. 3 suffered a shock defeat to Korda, with the American winning the first set on a closely contested tiebreak before dominating the second to win in straight sets, 7-6 (8), 6-2.
Prior to this match, Medvedev had criticized the court conditions at the tournament.
"To go back-to-back tournaments so fast, different balls, different surface, so that's very tricky," he said, "before was one of the probably the fastest on tour, now I don't know what's slower here or Indian Wells."
After his match against Korda, Medvedev suggested that the court may have favored his opponent a little bit, but the slow courts were not the reason that he lost the match.
"Yeah, I mean, it's not because of the court, but I do think the court maybe favors him a little bit. Was kind of fast enough for him to make winners, but slow enough to have time to kind of set up his shot. So I think, yeah, for him was good.
"Me, playing yesterday, I got used to it, so I was also playing better today than yesterday. Yeah, kind of one court always going to favor one player more than the other, and don't think I lost kind of because of it," he explained.
Daniil Medvedev was asked if he lost to Korda because of the slow court conditions: “Korda played well. I should have won the tiebreak but I didn't. That's the biggest difference… It’s not all about the court, but I think the conditions maybe favored him a little bit. He was…
