Two major players on the tour in 2026

Tiafoe and Medvedev are both looking to get back to their best tennis in this new season, and judging by their first-round matches, I think they’re on the right track!

Two beatdowns to start, the level of play was there and it’s pretty reassuring to see them that fit and involved for the first tournament of the season. Daniil just had a small issue finishing the match, but that’s all. He seems at peace with himself, he likes the conditions and seems to have found a second wind with his coaching change, he has to be taken very seriously. This second round is much tougher on paper but the match-up is in his favor, he’s way ahead in head-to-heads against Tiafoe, 5–2. Tiafoe’s only two wins were in 2015 on clay and then at the Laver Cup more recently, not exactly a real win. In the other five matches he only takes one set, poor guy, and at the same time he doesn’t really have the tools to hit through Daniil and physically he’s the first to crack. He’ll have to serve better than usual and come to the net taking even more risks than usual, otherwise from the baseline I don’t really see how he could get out of it. The recent version of Daniil is more reassuring, we’re seeing him back at top level and he doesn’t look like he’s in self-destruct mode. You’d have to watch live to see if everything’s still green across the board and in that case I find it hard to imagine him losing! On the other hand, if he starts piling up double faults and complaining, then Tiafoe could be a good option.