Medvedev keen for clay play before Paris
Sports
Daniil Medvedev said he was ready and raring to go as he returns from a hernia operation.
GENEVA (AFP) - Daniil Medvedev said he was ready and raring to go as he returns from a hernia operation, tuning up for next week s French Open on the Geneva clay.
The world number two underwent surgery last month after losing in the quarter-finals in Miami, missing the early clay-court season.
"It s never been easy for me on a clay court to start good straight away. So even one tournament is going to be good to prepare," he told reporters late Sunday.
"I m feeling good physically, I m feeling ready."
The US Open champion said playing in this week s 28-man, best-of-three-sets tournament in Geneva would help him sharpen up for the best-of-five Grand Slam in Paris.
"From what I can see, the conditions are very similar to Roland-Garros, where the balls fly around and the clay is fairly hard," the 26-year-old Russian said.
"The most important thing for me is to play at least one match -- of course I m hoping to play more -- in order to be ready to play five-set matches, if I have to.
"Even one, two or three matches here could help me be more ready to play at Roland-Garros."
Medvedev and Denis Shapovalov had a knockabout on the Lake Geneva shore on Monday as they posed for photos.
Top seed Medvedev has a bye into the round of 16 and will face either France s Richard Gasquet or John Millman of Australia on Tuesday.
- Opelka feeling for form -
Last year s Geneva winner Casper Ruud, runner-up Shapovalov and Reilly Opelka are the other top 20 players taking part, along with the 2020 US Open winner Dominic Thiem.
"It s a week before the French Open and that s all that matters for me right now," Opelka told AFP.
"Roland-Garros is really what I m here for. I haven t played well over the last couple of weeks so it s important for me to be here to get another match or two in and feel my game a little more before playing there," the 24-year-old American said.
Geneva tournament director Thierry Grin said it was a relief to have the public back in the grounds after two years of Covid-19 disruption.
"2020 was cancelled, last year there were no fans, so things had to start again, sport had to resume -- for the public, but also for the players, who need to have an audience and people to support them," he told AFP.
The centre court has a 3,000-seat capacity and Grin said this year had seen the biggest-ever ticket pre-sales, even before the players taking part were announced.
"This is proof that people want to get back out there," he said.
