The comeback begins now!?

Can Medvedev finally get back on track?

Well, to say that 2026 has been very up and down for Daniil would be an understatement. He started the year really well, with the title in Brisbane. Then we saw another title in Dubai, followed by a 7-6, 7-6 loss to Sinner in the final of Miami (after beating Alcaraz). Even a decent semifinal against Sinner in Rome after that. I'm sure many of us had the same feeling - "Medvedev is back". Well, then it all fell apart. A disastrous loss to Walton at Roland Garros (as a 1.03 favorite), nearly losing to Boogard (the wildcard) in Hertogenbosch. And the grass season barely could have ended worse than it did with his match against Struff, which was a massive "choke". Being up a break in just about every set, just to lose in straight sets, mama mia. Not the greatest comeback to hardcourts in his match against Botic in Montreal either... but at least that was his first match back in a long time. It would have been a bit more encouraging if he delivered a solid beatdown of Trungelliti, but he even let the Argentine have a set point in the second set!

As you can tell, there are many negatives. Maybe we should accept that Daniil is no longer the same player; he even mentioned it himself. It still feels a bit strange, especially since he had played at a great level earlier this year. Now, with a new coach and what seems like a good mindset, can he play himself back into some kind of form? I'll tell you some things that I do like! While I don't like the humidity and heat for him, at least the speed and bounce are better for him here than it was in Montreal. He also pulled out of doubles "due to fatigue", which I support; time to try and really fully focus on singles here! He mentioned that his goals were to "fight for every ball, find solutions, and serve well" after his win, which I also really like. Back to the roots, instead of the Medvedev who is forcing a lot offensively. Well, he of course has to execute it as well ;) Nakashima has historically been a comfortable matchup for him, but I think the newer, more aggressive version of Brandon poses more of a problem to Medvedev. When they faced off in the past, Daniil was also serving a lot better; if he struggles with the conditions and does a lot of double faults, he's really going to put himself in big trouble against a solid and reliable server like Nakashima. Oh yeah, I'll just quickly mention that I don't have a lot to take from Brandon's first match against Kovacevic, since Aleksandar was awful on serve and really struggled in the conditions...