Medvedev lost his men’s and mixed doubles opening matches at the Paris Olympics.
Daniil Medvedev delivered a pretty iconic quote on playing doubles after his doubles exit at the Paris Olympics as the Russian tennis star hilariously remarked that he “can play doubles” well but the thing is that he finds it “disturbing” to have four people on the court at the same time.
In his second Olympic appearance, 28-year-old Medvedev signed up to play in all three competitions – but his campaigns in the men’s and mixed doubles were pretty short-lived. After he and Roman Safiullin suffered a 4-6 4-6 loss to Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, the Russian former world No. 1 also didn’t impress with Mirra Andreeva in the mixed doubles after they lost 3-6 2-6 to Italian duo Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.
Medvedev is now 0-4 in his men’s doubles matches this year while his appearance with Andreeva was actually the first time that he played mixed doubles as a pro.
“Sometimes I can play doubles well, but in principle four people on the court disturbs me. I make mistakes on those balls that I never make mistakes on in singles, although the court is smaller. It’s a shame. I wanted to prove to myself that I can. But I couldn’t. It always hurts, but it happens. That’s life,” Medvedev said in Paris after his doubles losses.
What Medvedev said about doubles at the start of the Oylmpics?
After destroying Rinky Hijikata 6-2 6-1 in the singles first round, Medvedev revealed that he had bigger hopes for the doubles events in Paris.
“When I was coming here, to be honest, I had higher expectations for doubles and mixed. The draw is smaller, and the singles are strong. And I usually don’t win Roland Garros, to put it mildly,” Medvedev told Russian media after his opening singles win at the Olympics.
“But the balls here are completely different. Not as heavy. And I played very well here in training. So my expectations were higher. Today was a cool match. Let’s see what happens next.
After this statement, Medvedev left Paris without a doubles win while he made the round-of-16 in singles before losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime.
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