In February 2021, Daniil Medvedev was overwhelmed by Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final.
Djokovic, the champion of the last three years, is absent from the 2022 Australian Open due to visa cancellation.
Medvedev ended Djokovic’s dream of completing the Calendar Grand Slam and record of 21 Grand Slams in the US Open final in September 2021.
The Russian tennis player will even take Djokovic’s world number one position if he is crowned in two weeks.
`I had a lot of time to prepare for the Australian Open,` Medvedev said in an interview on January 15.
Medvedev is considered an intelligent person, which helps him change himself in a positive direction every year.
Medvedev won 13 and lost 5 matches at the Australian Open, a win rate of 72%.
The year Medvedev started holding a racket was also the year his compatriot Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt to win the Australian Open title, February 2005.
`I made some mistakes when I first played professionally,` Medvedev said.
According to the owner of 13 ATP titles, winning the first Grand Slam championship in New York in September 2021 is a big step forward in his career.
Without Djokovic, Medvedev is the first Russian player in the past two decades to be the favorite to win the Australian Open.
Alexander Zverev defeated Medvedev 6-4, 6-4 in the final of ATP Finals 2021. The German tennis player once reached the Grand Slam final and is desperate for his first title, just like Medvedev was hungry for it at the US Open last year.
`Both I and the young players feel that our era is coming, when the ‘Big 3’ enter the end of their careers,` Medvedev expressed.
This year’s Australian Open, with Djokovic’s incident, will be an opportunity for Medvedev and his peers like Zverev to reach the top of the Grand Slam and initially shape a new era.