By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday November 14, 2021
Defending Nitto ATP Finals champion Daniil Medvedev says that the hard courts at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin are playing faster than any surface he has ever played on.
"I think I prefer fast conditions, but here it's probably the fastest I have ever faced on the ATP Tour,” Medvedev told reporters after his 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Hubert Hurkacz on Sunday in Turin.
But the Russian, who is now carrying a six-match winning streak at the prestigious season-ending championships, says that it isn’t actually the surface that makes play so fast. It’s the air and the balls.
“Here I don't think it's the surface itself because, to be honest, surface probably is exactly the same as in London,” he said. “I think it's a combination of air, which is really dry here and I think the ball goes very fast through the air, the balls itself, which are quite fast balls, and the court, which, I mean, we saw it in the match, I was barely under pressure on my serve against a great returner. And same for me, I had just two games where I had break points, first set was zero break. What was it, like 35 minutes to get to tiebreak, so super fast.”
Hurkacz, who fell to 0-1 in round robin play on his ATP Finals debut, agrees with Medvedev.
“Here is way faster,” he said. “I mean, I think the surface could be close, but the balls make huge difference, so it's quite fast here. I mean, Daniil was serving great, I was serving decent apart from two games, so it was, it's quite quick here.”
Medvedev says he’ll be watching the next matches closely in Turin, to get an idea of how players are coping with the unique conditions.
“I wonder to see the other matches, the other three matches to see how they cope up with the speed because, again, for me and Hubi it was like just who makes one good shot in the point, I wonder if it's going to be the same for other guys and, yeah, sometimes during the tournament you get more used to it and that's where you have more points and stuff.”