Did Medvedev have a sixth sense about Turin streak?

When Daniil Medvedev finished the 2018 season at a then career-high No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings, little did he know that he would continue his climb and embark on a six-year streak competing at the prestigious Nitto ATP Finals.

Medvedev, who went 0-3 in his tournament debut in 2019 followed by a title run in 2020, is a perennial threat to become the champion of champions in Turin. This year is no different.

But the six-year streak has caught even Medvedev by surprise.

“Probably if you asked me in 2018, when I was not there, you’d say, ‘Six times in a row I’m going to be there’, I’d like be, ‘Wow! How? You need to win Masters 1000s, you need to play good at the Slams, and at that time I wasn’t doing it yet, even if I was going up. So I’m pretty happy about it,” Medvedev told ATP Media. “Happy to be here and looking forward.”

Your 2024 Champions. A new era. ?#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/VRWm1BcejT

The 28-year-old reflected on his 2024 season, during which he has tallied a 45-19 match record, labelling it as an “up and down” year with “some positives and some negatives”.

After lifting a career-best five titles in 2023, Medvedev is short on time as he continues to seek his first trophy of the season. The Australian Open and Indian Wells finalist is placed in the Ilie Nastase Group alongside Jannik Sinner, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur.

Medvedev and Fritz will kickstart the singles action on Sunday in what will be just their second Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

“With Taylor, it’s pretty crazy because we’ve both been Top 10 for like three years and we kind of started to be on Tour at the same time and we’ve only played each other one time, which is crazy,” said Medvedev, who beat Fritz in Cincinnati in 2022.

After Medvedev won his first six tour-level matches against Sinner, the Italian has forged a major turnaround in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, which now stands at 7-7. Medvedev and Sinner clashed five times this season (Sinner 4-1), including at three of the majors.

“You need to play an inch-perfect match to beat [Jannik],” Medvedev said. “From start to finish, you need to be there, you need to make him tired physically and work him out. If you are not able to do it from the start, he gets control of the match and it’s tough to break his rhythm. Very, very tough opponent, especially here in Italy.”

Boasting an 11-9 career record at the season finale, Medvedev will look to gain revenge on Nitto ATP Finals debutant De Minaur, who defeated the 20-time tour-level titlist at Roland Garros this year.

“I’ve known Alex for a long time. For me, he was always a great tennis player,” Medvedev said. “[Before], maybe a bit too much up and down, where he could have some amazing matches or even in the same match — he could have some amazing points where he runs from one side of the court to another one and makes a highlight for the season. And then during the same match, he would go a little bit down, make some mistakes, and this year that was not the case.

“I feel like that’s what made this season better than his previous ones — the consistency he was able to find throughout the whole year and throughout the whole matches.”

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