Carlos Alcaraz has named Daniil Medvedev as the player to beat on the hard courts instead of Novak Djokovic. Alcaraz and Medvedev are the top two seeds at the Shanghai Masters while the world No 1 takes a brief break. Despite Djokovic’s recent victory at the US Open, the Spaniard still thought that the 27-year-old was the “main” man to beat on the surface right now.
Alcaraz is bidding to get another title under his belt with his last coming at Wimbledon, where he defeated Djokovic in a five-set thriller. Since then, all of the big hard-court titles have been won by either the Serb or Jannik Sinner, with Djokovic picking up titles in Cincinnati and the US Open while the 22-year-old won the Canadian Open.
Medvedev also reached the final of the US Open as well as this week’s final in Beijing. In New York, he stunned Alcaraz in the semi-final when the Spaniard was the top seed and reigning champion. And Alcaraz now believes that the world No 3 will be the biggest threat on hard courts for the rest of the year.
“Medvedev, I think Medvedev is the one,” the 20-year-old told Tennis TV when asked who the player to beat was on the hard courts and whether it was the Russian. Throwing in some other names – including Djokovic – Alcaraz conceded that the 27-year-old was still on top.
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He added: “Medvedev, Djokovic, Sinner. [Alexander] Zverev is doing great but I think the main player is Medvedev.” The world No 3 will certainly be a tough prospect at the Shanghai Masters, as he is the most recent player to win the tournament when it was last staged in 2019.
It remains to be seen how Djokovic feels about his rival’s assessment when he returns to the tour at the Paris Masters later this month. The world No 1 opted not to play the Asian swing and took a brief break after playing the US Open and the Davis Cup group stage, helping Serbia qualify for the final eight.
