“For almost two sets, Daniil played the perfect match” – Mouratoglou
Patrick Mouratoglou explains the genius of Daniil Medvedev’s initial strategy against Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open, and why it ultimately failed
Virginie Bouyer / Panoramic
In a recent video on his Instagram channel, tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou has analysed Daniil Medvedev’s performance against Jannik Sinner in the recent Australian Open final.
The Frenchman, who coached Serena Williams for 10 years and runs the Mouratoglou Academy in France, outlined how Medvedev played “the perfect match” for “almost two sets” on Sunday. He also reveals why he believes the Russian ultimately lost the match, going down three sets to two against Sinner.
Daniil played “a type of tennis that is not his”
Rated by many as the heavy underdog coming into the Australian Open final, Mouratoglou explains the genius of Medvedev’s initial game plan.
“The start of the match was very interesting,” said Mouratoglou. “For almost two sets Daniil played one, the perfect match, and two, a type of tennis that is not his.”
“For two sets, he was not a counterpuncher. He was an attacking player, fully attacking,” the coach continued. “Why do I say that? First, aggressiveness and positioning on the return. He was positioned behind the baseline, when usually he’s five meters behind on the first serve. He was attacking every second serve.
“If you look at the stats, he was making the winners and the unforced errors. Sinner, he was almost no winners because [Daniil] is always the first one to attack. He played incredibly deep, fast, took time away from Sinner all the time, moving up. He came to the net a lot. He was definitely playing a type of tennis that he is not playing most of the time.”
Mouratoglou explains why Medvedev adopted an ultra-aggressive play style
Ahead of the Australian Open final, Medvedev had played an incredible three five-set matches already, as well as two other four-set clashes. This included back-to-back five-setters in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. This path fed into Medvedev’s approach in the final, Mouratoglou explains.
“I think that Daniil played like this for two reasons,” said Mouratoglou. “First of all, he was extremely tired. He knew that if he would play his classical game, he would have no chance. So he had to shorten the rallies, and accept to make more mistakes and to be more aggressive.
“Second, probably, because he lost a lot of times against Sinner lately, he thought, ‘OK I have to change something.’ And it made sense, I think it was the right tactic.”
Coming into the match against Sinner, Medvedev owned a 6-3 advantage in the pair’s head-to-head. However, the Italian had beaten him in each of their past three meetings, all of which were towards the end of 2023.
“The thing is after two sets, he started to back off,” Mouratoglou continued. “It was obvious that his ball was much slower from the end of the second set to the fifth. Sinner began to have more room to play, and when Sinner has more room, it’s a different story.
“From that point to the end of the match, I didn’t see one moment where I thought Daniil has a chance to win.”
