Daniil Medvedev is perhaps one of the most underrated players of his generation, with his struggles in the past few years only reinforcing this notion.
After all, whilst 2024 and 2025 were not kind to the Russian, even if he had retired before then, the 30-year-old has enjoyed a career most could only dream of.
A Grand Slam champion who has won titles at every level, including six Masters 1000 tournaments, this is a player who, despite a somewhat unorthodox playing style, has remained highly competitive across generations.
And that’s without mentioning the fact that he has reached another five major finals on top of the one he won, highlighting his consistent presence at the business end of the world’s most prestigious events.
If further proof was needed that Daniil Medvedev’s name deserves mentioning among some of the greats of this game, this latest statistic following his Almaty Open title should provide it.
Daniil Medvedev’s hard court dominance is clear
Medvedev has made no secret that his surface preference is on the hard courts.
Whether it is indoors or outdoors is not all that important, but both the clay and grass have not been kind to him. Of his 25 career titles, only two have come on a surfaces other than hard, winning the Italian Open in 2023, and the Mallorca Open in 2021.
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So, that leaves him with a hugely impressive 23 hard-court titles won during his career, and a further 16 finals lost on this surface.
To really emphasise just how noteworthy this is, after winning Almaty, Medvedev has now drawn level with Jannik Sinner and is just one hard-court title behind the legendary Rod Laver.
Even Rafael Nadal, on 25 hard-court titles, is within touching distance of the Russian star, who would certainly back himself to surpass this figure before his career is done.
Medvedev has recently rated his Grand Slam chances following his latest triumph, defending his title in Kazakhstan.
Who did Daniil Medvedev beat in his first ever ATP title?
It’s been just shy of a decade of watching Medvedev lift ATP titles, with his first coming in January of 2017.
There, he burst through the qualifiers to secure hugely impressive straight-sets wins over seeded stars like Philipp Kohlschreiber and Fabio Fognini, before facing an 18-year-old Alex de Minaur in the final.
This was an unlikely and highly unexpected showdown for the title, and having endured a gruelling tournament of his own, the Australian faded in front of his home crowd after taking the first set.
Medvedev rallied and outlasted his opponent to secure his first-ever title, unsurprisingly on hard courts.
