World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev admitted he just didn’t play good enough to beat Richard Gasquet in Geneva as his plan now is to return to the practice court and do some work ahead of the French Open.
After being sidelined for a month and a half because of a hernia surgery, Medvedev kicked off his clay season on Tuesday in Geneva.
Expectedly, Medvedev was nowhere near his best level in his first match following the surgery and Gasquet took advantage of it to win 6-2 7-6 (5).
“[I made] a lot of errors, a lot of double faults. Just was not playing good enough to win. Had maybe some small bright moments in the second set where I maybe could have won the second set,” Medvedev said, per the ATP Tour website. “But again because I don’t feel as confident on clay as on the other surfaces, that’s why I lost 7/5 in the tie-break, finishing with a double fault.
“[It is] disappointing, but I’ve had tougher losses in my career and I just need to try to do better next time.”
Medvedev feeling well physically
Medvedev maybe didn’t win a match in Geneva but the positive news was that he felt good on the court and didn’t feel any problems after the match.
“Physically I felt not bad today. I think more days of practice and [I] should be ready for Roland Garros because physically, even right now, my body feels good. Let’s see tomorrow morning, because I haven’t played [a tournament] for one month and a half, maybe two months,” Medvedev said. “Hopefully tomorrow morning it’s going to be good also.
“[I will] have some days of practice before Roland Garros so I’m going to try to work physically and also tennis-wise. Hopefully I can try to find the game I had there last year, which is not going to be easy.”
Last year, Medvedev reached his first French Open round-of-16.
Clay isn’t Medvedev’s favorite surface and he is not among top favorites for the French Open crown.