Match Report
Medvedev’s secret to a mid-match mental reset: Clean laundry!
Seventh seed holds off Marozsan in Madrid opener
April 25, 2026
David Ramos/Getty Images
Daniil Medvedev earns a three-set win against Fabian Marozsan on Saturday in Madrid.
By Andy West
A mid-match outfit change represents more than just a change of clothes for Daniil Medvedev.
The former No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings held his nerve for a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4 opening-round victory against Fabian Marozsan on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he later gave a little insight into one of the ways he can forge a mental reset during a match. Medvedev, who raced to the first set but soon found himself into a decider against Marozsan after letting slip a 4-2 lead in the second, revealed that a fresh set of clothes helped him regain composure after he lost the second-set tie-break.
“You can call it a superstition or not, but what I do is [this],” Medvedev said, before grabbing his shirt to explain. “My shirt is wet. Even now it’s wet. Not soaking wet, but a little bit wet. So once you take this dirty, wet stuff away and put on something new, and if you do socks, shorts, t-shirt, underwear… sometimes shoes [although] this time not… then it takes about three and a half minutes, and you kind of forget what happened before.”
Whatever Medvedev did on this occasion, it worked. The 23-time tour-level titlist earned a crucial break in the 10th game of the third set to see off Marozsan and complete his 20th win of the season. It was an impressive return to winning ways for a player who was competing for the first time since his stunning 0-6, 0-6 loss to Matteo Berrettini at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
“I think I played a good match in general, maybe except for a couple of points,” Medvedev said. “On clay it’s kind of a bit easier to come back from a set and a break, so for him it was his last chance, and he managed to play much better.
“He was making fewer mistakes and changed the rhythm a bit more. So I’m happy that I managed to stay in the match. I think in the third set, I was closer to winning it, and I finally did, so I’m really happy about it.”
and breathe 🥵@DaniilMedwed campaign begins with a hard-fought victory over Marozsan 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4! @MutuaMadridOpen | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/0wAp62R8Jl
— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 25, 2026
Medvedev won 79 per cent (50/63) of points behind his first serve against Marozsan, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 30-year-old’s next test in Madrid will be a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Nicolai Budkov Kjaer: The #NextGenATP Norwegian, playing in his first ATP Masters 1000 main-draw after coming through qualifying, earlier kept up his breakout run by upsetting 31st seed Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-1.
