Daniil Medvedev has turned himself into a dangerous grass player from deep behind the baseline, but his results on the surface now swing sharply from year to year. He finished 2026 19th in the men’s GTC Grass Rankings with a rating of 105, down from 8th before the season.
Grass at a glance
- GTC Grass Rating: 105, 19th in the men’s rankings (8th before the season)
- Pillars: Lawn Form 48, Arsenal 76, Wimbledon 52, Nerve 54
- Nationality: Russia
- Best Wimbledon result: Semi-final (2023, 2024)
- Grass titles: Mallorca 2021
- Plays: Right-handed, two-handed backhand
How Daniil plays on grass
Medvedev’s grass game rests on two things: a tall, accurate serve that is hard to read, and a flat backhand that stays very low through the court. He returns from far behind the baseline, which on grass should be a disadvantage, but his reach and anticipation let him get the first ball back deep, and once rallies start he makes opponents hit one more shot than they want to. His Arsenal pillar of 76 reflects that blend of serve and flat ball striking.
The surface also exposes him. He rarely comes forward by choice, his slice is used more for defence than attack, and players who serve and volley or chip low to his forehand can drag him out of position. When his serve percentages dip he has few quick fixes. The Nerve score of 54 fits a player who wins plenty of close sets but has lost a run of big matches from winning positions in recent seasons.
Grass record
Medvedev reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2021 and won his only grass title that summer, taking the Mallorca event as a wildcard. He missed Wimbledon in 2022 under the All England Club’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players, but reached grass finals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle that year. He then made back-to-back Wimbledon semi-finals, losing to Carlos Alcaraz in 2023 and again in 2024, after beating the top seed Jannik Sinner in the 2024 quarter-finals. The trend reversed in 2025: he reached the Halle final, lost to Alexander Bublik, and then fell in the first round of Wimbledon to Benjamin Bonzi.
The 2026 grass season
The lead-in was encouraging. In ‘s-Hertogenbosch he reached the semi-finals before Kamil Majchrzak beat him 7-6(4), 6-1 during a week in which the Pole beat three top 10 players, and his rating rose from 112 to 114. In Halle, seeded 4th, he beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Terence Atmane in straight sets before losing a close quarter-final 4-6, 7-6, 4-6 to the German wildcard Daniel Altmaier. GTC still lifted him to 116 for the volume of wins across the two events.
Wimbledon undid that work. Seeded 8th, he came from a set down to beat Daniel Mérida and then beat Marin Čilić comfortably, but in the third round he lost 6-7(4), 6-7(5), 5-7 to Jan-Lennard Struff, having been ahead in every set. His rating fell from 116 to 105, and he dropped 11 places in the GTC list.
Looking ahead to 2027
Medvedev’s lead-in results show his grass level is still there; the problem is turning it into a second week at Wimbledon. A schedule of ‘s-Hertogenbosch or Halle before London has suited him, and he will need it again to rebuild the Lawn Form pillar. The specific fix is closing out sets once ahead, along with more willingness to step in on return against big servers. A realistic target is a return to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, which would put him back inside the GTC top 10.
