It’s that time of the year when the hard court swing of the season is in full throttle and players have a strong desire to end the season on a high. So, it is only natural that the question of who is the better player on hard courts arises among people. Even players have opinions on who they think has the better game suited for hard courts.
A similar question was posed to Carlos Alcaraz, whose answer should have taken a lot of people by surprise. Alcaraz made a bold choice to pick Daniil Medvedev as the player to beat on hard courts. When posed with the question, he stated, “Medvedev, I think Medvedev is the one,” thus picking the Russian ahead of Novak Djokovic, the number 1 ranked Tennis player in the world.
Carlos Alcaraz watching Daniil Medvedev & Sebi Korda in Shanghai.
Scouting. 👀
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) October 8, 2023
But he was quick to add “Medvedev, Djokovic, Sinner. [Alexander] Zverev is doing great but I think the main player is Medvedev.” Thus, he re-asserted the fact that though Djokovic, Sinner, and Zverev have been doing well in recent times, he felt that it is the Russian who exhibits more invincibility on the hard courts than the others.
The surprise was mainly because Alcaraz chose Medvedev, though it is Djokovic and Sinner who are dominating the hard-court season. The Serb, Djokovic lifted the titles at the U.S. Open and Cincinnati while it was Sinner who went all the way at the Canadian Open and the China Open.
Stats concerning the choice of Carlos Alcaraz on who is the best hard-court player
Alcaraz is looking to get to his first title, after being crowned as the Champion at Wimbledon, at the Shanghai Masters. In this ATP 1000 tournament, he and Daniil Medvedev will be the top two seeds as Novak has taken a brief break. But, to the credit of Alcaraz, Medvedev has upset the apple cart on more than one occasion against top-ranked players, especially on hard courts.
Medvedev has always maintained that hard-court is his favorite surface. He once famously proclaimed, “I know what is hard court, I’m a specialist”. At the US Open, he backed it up with numbers by recording his 250th hard-court win of his career. This stat bears much significance because he is the only active player below 30 years old to achieve this feat.
This is not all, as he reached the finals of the U.S. Open and the China Open, even scalping Alcaraz himself, en route to the finals at Flushing Meadows. The consistency with which he plays may have been the reason why he was tipped as the player to watch out for when it comes to hard courts, by Carlos Alcaraz.
It would be interesting to see whether Alcaraz would be made to eat his words back when Novak Djokovic returns to compete later this month. Given the Serb’s prowess on indoor hard courts, which are the conditions he will be faced with at Paris and Turin, and given that he feeds off criticism, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Alcaraz finds out that he might have spoken a little early.