"Best start to season ever," Daniil Medvedev after Miami Open win

Daniil Medvedev is a former World No. 1, a Grand Slam champion and now a five-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist. Despite all of his accomplishments, the current stretch may be the best he has ever experienced. At the Miami Open, he won his first trophy, boosting his 2023 record to 29-3 and giving him four trophies in the previous five competitions.

In his breakout season of 2019, Medvedev won four titles, and he repeated that feat in 2021. With his 7-5, 6-3 victory over Jannik Sinner on Sunday, he has already surpassed that milestone a little over three months into 2023, and there is still plenty of time to go.

Speaking in his post-match press-conference, the self-defined hard-court specialist explained why he is so comfortable on the surface.

"It's the best start of the season I have ever had. Amazing amount of points won," ATP.com quoted Medvedev as saying.

"Generally I love hard courts. I love playing on it. If it would be my choice, it would be only hard courts, but I completely understand that that's not fair, if we can say like this. I feel the best at my game on hard courts. Even if I know that I can play well enough on the grass and clay, on hard courts I feel the most fluid. On hard courts I can play not my best tennis but still win the matches. That's a big difference," he added.

As Medvedev leads the ATP Tour with 29 tour-level victories this year, his rivals can only hope that the approaching switch to clay courts will calm the soon-to-be World No. 4.

"Now clay season starts so we'll see how you do there. But I wish you all the best," Sinner teased during his runner-up speech.

Defeated but not dejected, Jannik Sinner was keen to focus on the bigger picture following his straight-sets loss against Daniil Medvedev

"It's always going to be a tough, tough challenge for me to play against [Medvedev]. But I feel like I'm getting closer and closer. Even today I felt like that the chances are there, so that's the good thing and the positive thing," Sinner said.

"The good thing is that after Indian Wells compared to here I have improved. I felt better on court. That's the most important," Sinner later added. (ANI)