\u201cI\u2019m done,\u201d Daniil Medvedev said multiple times to his coaching team during a gruelling and dramatic contest at the 2025 Shanghai Masters.<\/p>\n
Late in the second set of his last 16 match with Learner Tien at the prestigious Chinese event, Medvedev was ready to retire as cramping took hold. At one stage, Medvedev appeared to start walking to the net to shake hands, but he decided to keep playing.<\/p>\n
Medvedev<\/a>\u2018s refusal to quit gave him the opportunity to claim a remarkable 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 6-4 victory against the 19-year-old American rising star.<\/p>\n The context of Medvedev\u2019s history with Tien<\/a>, who he held a 0-2 record against before this match, makes the win even more impressive.<\/p>\n The Russian lost a marathon Australian Open second round battle to Tien in January in a fifth set tiebreak after failing to serve it out.<\/p>\n More significantly, there were uncanny parallels between this Shanghai match and the pair\u2019s meeting at the China Open just over a week ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the Beijing semi-finals,\u00a0Medvedev was forced to retire when trailing Tien 0-4 in the third set due to cramping. In a similarly physical battle, Medvedev had lost the second set 5-7 after serving for the match at 5-4. His body then broke down early in the decider.<\/p>\n History looked set to repeat itself for Medvedev in Shanghai, where seven players have pulled out mid-match due to the brutal heat and humidity at this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n Medvedev asked his team to give him pickle juice \u2014 which is used to combat cramping \u2014 early in the second set. He managed to build a 3-0 lead and had a break point for 4-0, but his physical condition worsened as the set progressed.<\/p>\n The 29-year-old won only one point in the second set tiebreak as the cramps visibly affected his movement.<\/p>\n Medvedev had won a pulsating 75-minute opening set on a tiebreak, and his chances looked slim heading into the decider against Tien, who is renowned for his physicality and consistency.<\/p>\n His first serve took over in the third set, though, and he incredibly prevailed in a two-hour-and-52-minute epic.<\/p>\n An absolute rollercoaster<\/p>\n Daniil Medvedev somehow overcomes Learner Tien in an epic battle lasting 2 hours and 52 minutes #RolexShanghaiMasters<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/41AQEkazdT<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Although he expressed his frustration at the situation several times, Medvedev did not let it boil over and maintained the composure and grit he needed to survive significant adversity.<\/p>\n This is notable after some of Medvedev\u2019s on-court meltdowns this season \u2014 particularly the one in his opening round US Open loss less than two months ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n Who is Daniil Medvedev\u2019s new coach? Fellow Grand Slam champion Thomas Johansson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n What Novak Djokovic said after health and injury concerns in Shanghai Masters win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Medvedev, a former world No 1 who won the US Open in 2021, is currently ranked 18th having endured a largely torrid 2025 campaign by his lofty standards.<\/p>\n The 20-time ATP Tour<\/a> titlist has reached only four semi-finals in his 20 previous events this year, and staggeringly, he won just one match across the four Grand Slam events.<\/p>\n Clinching a win that had looked near impossible against an opponent who had been a nemesis feels hugely important for Medvedev.<\/p>\n The Russian hired Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke as his new coaches ahead of the Asian swing, having parted ways with long-time coach Gilles Cervara after the US Open.<\/a><\/p>\n It has been a positive start for the new-look team; Medvedev is now 7-2 since Johannsson and Goetzke arrived having been 23-18 for the season beforehand.<\/p>\n Medvedev applauded Tien as his opponent left the court and he lauded the current world No 36 in an on-court interview with Tennis TV.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, the toughest part is that we played two times and in my opinion, he\u2019s an unbelievable player, because he doesn\u2019t have a great serve and serve is so important in tennis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd without the serve, he\u2019s 19, he\u2019s 30 in the world and only going up. And in my opinion, he\u2019s such a good tennis player. He feels the game so well.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many guys right now \u2014 it\u2019s where tennis is going \u2014 that just hit strong, and just every ball they have, they hit full power. They have amazing serves, so that makes them stay in the tennis match.<\/p>\n \u201cHe (Tien) doesn\u2019t have it and he manages to play so good without it. And so for me to beat him, I thought I was going to lose, I was cramping again\u2026 and I\u2019m just super happy to manage to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how much it could help him to come through a match like this, though, Medvedev played down the value of this win alone and pointed to the toll it took on him.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I will be honest, I don\u2019t think this helps. I\u2019m dead. Luckily I don\u2019t play tomorrow, so I have one day to recover and I\u2019m probably gonna be fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He was bullish, however, about the tennis he has played in Asia as a whole \u2014 and he made a telling comment that he will \u201cbe back\u201d if he continues to perform at this level.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more the general Asian swing, I was playing good,\u201d Medvedev added.\u00a0\u201cThe two matches I lost, I was serving for the match. I was playing great level and I\u2019m happy with where I\u2019m going. And if I continue like this, I can, one moment, be back (smiles).\u201d<\/p>\n After his victory, Medvedev \u2014 a Shanghai champion in 2019 \u2014 wrote on the camera lens: \u201cI don\u2019t want to leave the best city in the world yet.\u201d<\/p>\n It is hard to believe that the Russian is chasing his first title since May 2023, when he won the Italian Open. He will next face world No 7 Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals, which promises to be another tough physical challenge.<\/p>\n In the absence of Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, Jannik Sinner<\/a> and a host of other stars, though, this is a good opportunity for the former world No 1 to announce he really is back.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Why Federer & Zverev\u2019s controversial Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner theory doesn\u2019t make sense<\/a> The post Why Daniil Medvedev\u2019s astonishing Shanghai Masters win could be a turning point in brutal season<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI\u2019m done,\u201d Daniil Medvedev said multiple times to his coaching team during a gruelling and dramatic contest at the 2025 Shanghai Masters. Late in the second set of his last 16 match with Learner Tien at the prestigious Chinese event, Medvedev was ready to retire as cramping took hold. At one stage, Medvedev appeared to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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