Zero result: Russian tennis players unsuccessfully started the clay season

The first major clay Masters of the season turned out to be the worst-case scenario for our tennis players. The leader of our tennis, Daniil Medvedev, lost a match with two steering wheels for the first time in his career — he got 6:0, 6:0 from Italian Matteo Berrettini. Andrey Rublev failed to overcome the barrier of the second round, taking only five games from Belgian Ziz Bergs. Karen Khachanov crashed out in the previous stage, losing in two games to Frenchman Arthur Rinderknes.

How Medvedev lost to Berrettini

Berrettini approached the match with Medvedev as an outsider. This is largely due to the fact that the Russian won all three face-to-face meetings against the Italian. And also because of the different positions in the ranking: 90th and 10th, respectively. Although the ground is one of the favorite coatings of the Italian. For example, in July 2024, Matteo won two tournaments in a row on this surface, in Gstaad and Kitzbuhel, without losing a single game. In total, he took 10 titles during his career, and six of them on clay. Although his best performance at the Grand Slam tournaments was on grass — the final of Wimbledon-2021. lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets.

Daniil has only one clay title to his credit.: The Masters in Rome in 2023. However, in Monte Carlo, where Medvedev and his family have been based for quite some time, he achieved decent results. He beat Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and three-time tournament champion Stefanos Tsitsipas. In 2019, Daniel reached the semifinals, and in the last three years he has reached at least the third round.

Berrettini also crashed out in the third round last year, losing to compatriot Lorenzo Musetti. Before that, Matteo beat out Alexander Zverev. It happened on April 8, 2025. After that, the Italian has never been able to beat a player from the top 10.

And now, a year later, Berrettini did it again on the same court. Moreover, he literally declassified his opponent. The fight, in fact, was only in the two opening games. In the first, Medvedev, losing 0:30, won three draws in a row, but could not make a break point. At exactly the same time, the Italian provided another opportunity for his opponent to start with a break, but Daniil missed this chance. The Russian played the second game according to plan, forcing the opponent to get involved in long draws. However, Berrettini made no mistakes, made a couple of winners, and Daniel suddenly went into a chaotic action: he often went to the net, made unsuccessful shortened ones.

Appointment court: Daniil Medvedev returned to top form

Despite losing in the final, the Russian showed an elite level of skill and fought on equal terms with the leaders of world tennis.

Medvedev conceded the first game in 25 minutes. The second one was for 26. Matteo varied the spins, the speed of the punches, added dropshots, got into the game timing, but not to say that he showed something extraordinary. It was just that his opponent's game was absolutely not going well. It seemed that he wanted to play on clay, like on a hardboard. In the middle of the short second game, Daniel lost his nerve. In a fit of anger, he smashed his racket, for which he received a warning. But even after such an emotional release, he couldn't take a single game.

Daniil has already lost four sets with the steering wheel this season. Lerner Tien at the Australian Open, Francisco Cerundolo in Miami and now Berrettini. Moreover, Medvedev had never conceded both sets with a score of 0:6 before. If we talk about the top 10 players, the last time this happened was in 2016. Then, with such a score, the eighth racket of the world Tomas Berdych was beaten by David Goffin in the third round in Rome (also on clay). In the history of the ATP, this is only the fifth time that a player from the top ten loses a match with a score of 0:6, 0:6.

And this was at the first clay tournament led by Thomas Johansson and Rohan Götzke. Daniel and his team have a lot to think about. There are three more important tournaments ahead on this surface.: Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros.

The crisis of Russian top tennis players

If Daniil played one unsuccessful match on an unloved surface (in general, Medvedev's season is going well — two titles, fourth place in the ATP championship race), then Andrei Rublev's problems are more global. He won only one match at the last three Masters, beating Nuna Borges in Monte Carlo. In the match with the Portuguese, the Russian took a medical break due to neck or back pain.

— When I came out to serve with the score at 4-3, I started to feel uncomfortable. After a long draw, I realized that it was over," the ATP press service quoted Rublev as saying. — I took a "horse dose" of painkillers during a medical timeout to finish the match.

Two days later, Andrey had a match with Zizu Bergs, which showed that Rublev could not recover from the injury. The Russian lost to the Belgian tennis player, ranked 48th in the ATP rankings, in two sets.

— I've reached the limit with a style that relies mostly on forehand and that doesn't have a backup plan. I think I did everything I could to get into the top 5. Now it's time to try something new and see if I can start over," Rublev said after an early flight to Miami.

Karen Khachanov is also playing with varying success this year. After a great game in Qatar, Karen was unable to show his best tennis in Dubai and at a bunch of American super tournaments. So far, it has not been possible to break the black stripe on the ground. In the last five matches, the Russian has four defeats.