Medvedev yearns for wide open spaces in Rome

Daniil Medvedev is hoping to have some room to move when he begins play at the Rome Masters after complaining about lack of space behind the baseline last week in Madrid.

The third seed behind Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz was relegated for a match on the secondary showcourt where he said he felt cramped and unable to express his complete game.

While the real estate at the Foro Italico is not known as being particularly expansive, Medvedev is hoping for the best.

“Probably out of 96 players, maybe 94 or 92 will not care about the size of the court because they just return closer,” he said on Tuesday.

“I thought it (Madrid fourth-round loss to Aslan Karatsev) was really good match. The only thing we agreed on my coach was: I don’t know how the match would go if I can be further (room) on return.”

Medvedev said the nature of the clay game requires him to be able to move freely – something hard to manage on a somewhat cramped backcourt.

“It’s even more important for me (on clay) than on hard courts; on hard courts I can adapt. 

“On a clay court, especially with Aslan who has really heavy serve, I couldn’t go further; I could not put power on him.”

But the ATP No. 3 is not hoping for a miracle expansion of the backcourt any time soon.

“All the tournaments in the world cannot make all the match courts as big as I want or some other players want – at the same time it’s a disadvantage.

“Playing Karatsev on the second court, I had a disadvantage. It didn’t allow me to play my 100 per cent tennis,

“Today in practice I was touching the fence, I was straightaway thinking about Madrid.

“I would love every tennis court to be 10 meters larger and 10 meters wider, but I also understand it’s not possible

“Every time I’m not going to have my space on the return, I’m going to be disappointed because I cannot play my best tennis.”