 What's up everybody welcome back to tennis talk my name is Cam Williams And we're going to go through the road to the gold medal for Daniel Medvedev the world number two And he loves playing on hardcourts We are playing on hardcourts in Tokyo for the first time since March So it's been a long long time since we've seen Medvedev on a hardcourt got to the Australian Open final this year So how far can he go in Tokyo in its best at three set match? Let's go start with who he's playing in the first round so Daniel Medvedev He starts his campaign as the number two seed against Bublick now He has played Bublick a couple of times one of those times being a couple of weeks ago at the French Open So he has some recent form against this guy and Medvedev has a 2-0 head-to-head record Against Bublick the only time they played on a hardcourt though all the way back in 2016 with Medvedev getting a straight sets win in St. Petersburg in front of his Russian crowd So you would expect that Medvedev on a hardcourt should get through his first round match against Bublick But it's not going to be easy your second round matchup is most likely going to be the veteran Isterman so it would be a very interesting matchup because they actually have played on a futures tournament So a very low tier tournament back in 2016 Isterman got the win there in straight sets But it's a different story now 2016 we're in 2021 Medvedev is a way different player than what he was back then So Isterman it's gonna be a tough match He's gonna replicate that win that he got against Medvedev five years ago If Medvedev does make it to the third round he'll be taking on the world number 31 Fabio Finini who's coming in here is the 15th seed so he's got a very high seeding in this one to fight his ranking It's not like great hasn't had a great 2021 Fabio However, these two have played four times before with Medvedev leading the head-to-head 3-1 The last time they actually played was on a hardcourt back at the ATB Cup last year with Medvedev getting a three-set win Now that's very important because this tournament is best of three and this tournament is about representing your country just like the ATB Cup So you got to watch out for Fabio because Finini is one of those players that when he's playing for Italy He gets really fired up and really charged up So Medvedev's got to be careful here that he's not playing against a fired up Fabio because there could be an upset on the card So Medvedev very tough third round if he does play Finini into the quarterfinals now And most likely gonna play by the seedings Carina Buster the number six seed currently the world number 12 and in form because he just won in Hamburg a couple of weeks ago the ATP 500 event which the huge event for the clay court season Fortunately, this is not a clay court event So Carina Buster maybe can't convert that onto the hardcourts But he did make the US Open semi-finals last year So Carina Buster does like playing on hardcourts These two have actually played four times or four with Medvedev leading the head-to-head 3-1 and 2-1 on hardcourts So you'd expect if they do play in the quarterfinals Medvedev should get the win But again Carina Buster he doesn't mind playing on the hardcourts in best of three sets We know anything can happen going into the semi-finals now and the most likely opponent for Medvedev is to file a city pass The world number four now these two have played a lot of times before eight times In fact and Medvedev has a commanding lead six two against city pass now city pass did get their win The last time they played that was at the French Open this year That was a clay court event Medvedev However won their last hardcourt matchup which was at the Australian open earlier this year and he won in straight sets Pretty convincing as well So this is the hardcourt event You'd expect Medvedev to have the edge over city pass in that semi-final getting to the gold medal match now And the most likely scenario is that Medvedev will take on world number one Novak Djokovic in that gold medal final Now Djokovic does lead the head-to-head 5-3 against Medvedev And they played at the Australian Open final of course with Medvedev barely getting any shots back from Djokovic Djokovic was playing amazing in that final however at the end of last year Medvedev did get the win in straight sets in their Last best of three set match that was at the ATB finals was a straight sets win to Medvedev back then So this is best of three so you got to give Medvedev a chance against Djokovic especially on a hardcourt But it's not going to be easy But if Medvedev can do it he'll win the gold medal for his country So there it is there is the road to the title the road to the gold medal for Daniel Medvedev Let me know down the comments below how far can Medvedev go? I think he can win a medal I don't know if he can win the gold medal But he could probably easily win the bronze all the silver medal because he does like playing on hardcourts One of the best hardcore players going around so I'm interested to see how Medvedev does has a tough road ahead though The first couple of matches are going to be tough But if you can get on a roll Medvedev, we know he loves playing on the hardcourts And then who knows he can play Djokovic in that final and maybe Maybe cause the biggest upset of the year in that final and stop the Golden Grand Slam But let me know down in the comments below how far Medvedev can go and who's his biggest threat? Daniel Medvedev loves playing on the hardcourts and it's the best of three sets who knows what could happen