Medvedev leans on fresh kit to steady nerves on Madrid clay
After a tie-break slip and the memory of a straight-sets collapse still fresh, Daniil Medvedev reached for a simple wardrobe switch that bought him three and a half minutes of mental distance and the composure to close out a gritty opener.
Daniil Medvedev stepped onto the red clay at the Mutua Madrid Open carrying the weight of a recent straight-sets defeat yet found a practical way to clear his head mid-match.
Reset arrives with a change of kit
A mid-match outfit change represents more than just a change of clothes for Daniil Medvedev. The former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings held his nerve for a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4 opening-round victory against Fabian Marozsan on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he later gave a little insight into one of the ways he can forge a mental reset during a match.
Medvedev raced through the opening set before letting a 4-2 lead slip in the second. Once the tie-break turned against him the Russian used the change of shirt, shorts, socks and underwear to create separation from the setback. The routine took roughly three and a half minutes and allowed him to return to the baseline with renewed focus.
“You can call it a superstition or not, but what I do is this,” Medvedev said, before grabbing his shirt to explain. “My shirt is wet. Even now it’s wet. Not soaking wet, but a little bit wet. So once you take this dirty, wet stuff away and put on something new, and if you do socks, shorts, t-shirt, underwear… sometimes shoes although this time not… then it takes about three and a half minutes, and you kind of forget what happened before.”
and breathe @DaniilMedwed campaign begins with a hard-fought victory over Marozsan 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4! @MutuaMadridOpen | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/0wAp62R8Jl
— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 25, 2026
Shaking off the Monte-Carlo shadow
That reset carried extra weight because it marked his first match since the stunning 0-6, 0-6 loss to Matteo Berrettini at the Monte-Carlo Masters. The quick wardrobe switch helped Medvedev treat the tie-break defeat as yesterday’s news rather than a lingering burden.
Inside the third set the Russian began to mix inside-out drives with occasional slice approaches that pulled Fabian Marozsan wide, creating space for the decisive down-the-line winner on break point. The crowd noise swelled each time the ball found the corner, yet Medvedev kept his footwork light and his decisions simple. One clean return pattern repeated itself: heavy crosscourt forehand followed by a sharp inside-in backhand that pinned the Hungarian behind the baseline.
Medvedev won 79 per cent (50/63) of points behind his first serve against Fabian Marozsan,according to ATP Stats. The 30-year-old’s next test in Madrid will be a maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with Nicolai Budkov Kjaer. The #NextGenATP Norwegian, playing in his first ATP Masters 1000 main-draw after coming through qualifying, earlier kept up his breakout run by upsetting 31st seed Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-1.
Clay rhythm favors measured responses
“I think I played a good match in general, maybe except for a couple of points,” Medvedev said. “On clay it’s kind of a bit easier to come back from a set and a break, so for him it was his last chance, and he managed to play much better. He was making fewer mistakes and changed the rhythm a bit more. So I’m happy that I managed to stay in the match. I think in the third set, I was closer to winning it, and I finally did, so I’m really happy about it.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas ousted eighth seed Alexander Bublik 6-2, 7-5 to earn his fourth Top 20 win of the season and first on clay since the 2024 Paris Olympics. Last season, Stefanos Tsitsipas went 0-5 against Top 20 players. The Greek dropped just two points behind his first serve (33/35) and did not face a break point, helping him improve to 3-0 in his ATP Head2Head series with Alexander Bublik. The 27-year-old, who reached the Madrid final in 2019, will next face Spanish qualifier Daniel Merida, who beat 26th seed Corentin Moutet 6-3, 6-4.
The victory keeps the 30-year-old on track for a deep run at a tournament where he has twice reached the quarter-finals. With the psychological weight of Monte-Carlo now eased by a win built on routine rather than brilliance, the focus shifts to managing energy across a best-of-three draw that could stretch into the middle of next week. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer will test the same first-serve percentage that proved decisive here, but Medvedev’s ability to compartmentalise between points may prove the larger edge on the slower red clay.
