Daniil Medvedev has been told he is \u201cstagnating\u201d and that his \u201cera\u201d of tennis could be over following his latest defeat at the Canadian Open.<\/p>\n
Former world No 1 Medvedev<\/a> was beaten in third-round action in Toronto on Thursday night, falling 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to 18th seed and defending champion Alexei Popyrin<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 10th seed\u2019s defeat means he now holds a 26-16 record for 2025, with the 29-year-old struggling to find his best form in recent months.<\/p>\n Medvedev was beaten in the opening round of the French Open and Wimbledon this summer<\/a>, and was also beaten in the second round of the Australian Open<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n The Russian is down at 14th in the ATP Rankings, his lowest ranking since 2019, and has not won an ATP Tour title since the Italian Open in May 2023.<\/p>\n Hard-court tennis has been Medvedev\u2019s happiest hunting ground throughout his career, though a surprise quarter-final loss to Corentin Moutet at the Citi DC Open has now been followed by an early exit in Toronto.<\/p>\n The world No 14 attracted further criticism for smashing his racket on court after falling to Moutet in Washington, while he walked off court in Toronto without collecting his belongings on Thursday.<\/p>\n Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sinner absences addressed as former ATP star sends Canadian Open \u2018drag on\u2019 warning<\/a><\/p>\n ATP Tour stars clash over \u2018pathetic\u2019 Canadian Open scheduling complaint<\/a><\/p>\n Medvedev\u2019s struggles in recent months contrast greatly with the form that saw him win the 2021 US Open title and spend 16 weeks as the world No 1, alongside reaching a further five major finals.<\/p>\n He is still often considered a significant factor at the biggest events in the calendar, though former professional tennis player Julien Varlet believes that could change.<\/p>\n Speaking on Sans Filet<\/em>, the Frenchman claimed that Medvedev was \u201cno longer scary\u201d and had not progressed enough to remain at the top of the sport.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMedvedev is stagnating, and it\u2019s even close to regressing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s no longer scary. He\u2019s not hurting. And then when you\u2019re in doubt, there are two things that help you hold the fort.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, your physique. But he\u2019s given so much that it\u2019s starting to get complicated. And then, above all, there\u2019s technique, and that\u2019s not where he\u2019s best.<\/p>\n \u201cSo as soon as he\u2019s in doubt, he automatically plays less well. Even in 2019, when he had that great part of the season, he didn\u2019t play the short game well, he didn\u2019t volley very well. And he hasn\u2019t progressed.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though I love him, I think we should forget the Daniil Medvedev era.\u201d<\/p>\n Following his Canadian Open exit, Medvedev is set to return to action at the Cincinnati Open, which gets underway next week.<\/p>\n The 29-year-old triumphed at the tournament in 2019 and reached back-to-back semi-finals in 2021 and 2022, though was beaten in the third round in 2023, and in round two in 2024.<\/p>\n That will then be followed by his US Open campaign, where the Russian has reached the final on three separate occasions.<\/p>\n Outside of his 2021 triumph, Medvedev was runner-up at the tournament in 2019 and 2023, and suffered a quarter-final defeat to eventual champion Jannik Sinner twelve months ago.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0The 5 active players to win 500 ATP Tour matches: Alexander Zverev joins exclusive club<\/a><\/p>\n The post Daniil Medvedev told he is \u2018close to regressing\u2019 as struggles continue with Canadian Open exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Daniil Medvedev has been told he is \u201cstagnating\u201d and that his \u201cera\u201d of tennis could be over following his latest defeat at the Canadian Open. Former world No 1 Medvedev was beaten in third-round action in Toronto on Thursday night, falling 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to 18th seed and defending champion Alexei Popyrin. The 10th seed\u2019s […]<\/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-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","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=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n