Daniil Medvedev arrived in 2025 like a chess grandmaster, opening the season not with flair but with quiet confidence\u2014until the position on the board began slipping. Mid-June finds him ranked 11, his record a modest 16\u20139, without a title, without momentum. He may still be Daniil Medvedev, the towering Russian whose backhand once shattered Novak Djokovic\u2019s rhythm at Flushing Meadows in 2021\u2014but so far this year, he\u2019s lost that edge more often than he\u2019s found it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It began in Melbourne. At the Australian Open, Medvedev faced 19-year-old Learner Tien<\/a>, ranked outside the top 200. What should have been routine turned into nearly five hours of suspense and heartbreak. Medvedev served for the match twice\u2014and twice blanked. The final 10\u20138 on a fifth-set tiebreak didn\u2019t just mark a stunning loss; it felt like the scoreboard unveiling cracks that had been forming quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n