His favorite thing in tennis seems to be testing himself against difficult competition, even more than specifically winning tournaments. Most players would have considered the walkover against Nadal in the semis of Wimbledon to be a gift, but Kyrgios looked legitimately disappointed in his press conference. I don’t think anyone on tour looks forward to top-level matches more than Nick Kyrgios.
But there are aspects to Kyrgios’ game that can particularly trouble the Russian, and it all begins with Medvedev’s status. As we’ve said, four matches is not an extensive enough data set to say that one style should dominate the other. Naturally, then, two players with opposing skillsets might find it difficult to play against each other but why would this favor Kyrgios? The answer is that it doesn’t necessarily. Medvedev exerts maximum energy, Kyrgios minimum, even when he is at his best.Įmbed from Getty Images But Why Would the Yang Trouble the Yin? Medvedev speeds around the court in long gangly strides, but never goes out of his way to come to net Kyrgios plays a low-energy variety of defensive tennis that seems mainly designed to stave off boredom, and looks more comfortable at the net than even Maxime Cressy. Medvedev uses the backhand well, especially with precision shots down the line, while Kyrgios doesn’t seem to consider it a weapon at all, and just sends his backhands back with little enthusiasm to await a more interesting shot.īoth players have a tendency to turn defense into offense, but offense seems to be Medvedev’s more natural groove, while Kyrgios seems to just want someone to challenge him so he can doing something fun. Neither has a particularly remarkable backhand, although Medvedev has a remarkably awkward backhand motion, while Kyrgios gets by with a surprisingly short backswing.
Medvedev has a big swatty forehand that he plays from deep behind the baseline Kyrgios has an elbow-jackknifing, whippy forehand that he hits from near the court. He happens to play in almost exactly the opposite way of Medvedev. Yin and Yangīut it’s more than just raw skill and general talent that Kyrgios brings to the matchup. So if anyone was going to hold a 3-1 record over Medvedev, it was either going to be a Big 3 or Nick Kyrgios. He beat the Big 3 as a teenager, he’s beaten two then-current world #1’s, and his pure physical skillset is often considered the best of his generation. And before we even dig into the reasons, the fact that we are talking about Nick Kyrgios almost answers the question without needing reasons. But Medvedev is such a player that anyone beating him at all warrants a closer look, much less beating him three times. To be fair, a four-match sample size is not very big, and if Medvedev wins it will sit at 3-2, which is entirely unremarkable.
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