Daniil Medvedev, padel partner of Iga Swiatek, reunites with Andrey Rublev in doubles

HALLE, Germany—After Daniil Medvedev's Roland Garros campaign ended after just one match, thanks to Cameron Norrie, the 29-year-old was probably all the more excited to get going on grass. He immediately went to s'Hertoenbosch, where he defeated Adrian Mannarino before falling to Reilly Opelka—in two tiebreaks, before you ask.

His opening match at the Terra Wortmann Open on Monday went smoothly, despite facing home favorite—and French Open high flyer—Daniel Altmaier.

"I didn't really have that in my head," Medvedev admitted shortly after his 6-3, 6-3 victory over the German. "I knew he had played fantastically in Paris, but the surface is so different. Maybe it's the case that the better you play in Paris, the harder it is for you to play in Halle."

Nine years later, Medvedev and Rublev reunite

Medvedev is not only playing singles this week. He is competing in doubles with his good friend Andrey Rublev for the first time in nine years. In 2016, they competed together for the first and only time at the ATP 250 in Moscow, and reached the semifinals.

For Medvedev, it is not only his first doubles competition since August 2024, when he played with Roman Safiullin in Montreal and reached the quarter-finals, but also a small comeback with his longtime friend.

"Andrey is a great doubles player," Medvedev said of his buddy. "To be honest, I think he has the qualities to become one of the best doubles players in the world. I wouldn't say that about myself!" he laughed.

But I hope that playing with him will help me get the best out of myself. We'll see how it goes!

Medvedev picks up padel with Swiatek

Medvedev proved that he is a team player when he teamed up with Iga Swiatek to take on padel pros Joel Olivera and Matias Novillo.

"That was so much fun," Medvedev said, looking back on the challenge from Tecnifibre. "And above all, it was so much fun to shoot with Iga."

He then goes into detail: "The whole thing lasted two hours. Everything went really well and what was incredible was that they explained this rule to us, which I didn't know before, when Iga served. She started and did a normal tennis serve because we didn't know that the ball had to bounce once first."

He continued: "We understood that. Then it was our opponents' turn to serve, then I served and then it was Iga's turn again. And again she didn't let the ball bounce. The others laughed. Come on, let the ball bounce. No problem. We finished the point, she served again and still didn't let the ball bounce!"

It was unbelievable. In the end, I think she only let the ball bounce once. It was so funny. All in all, we had a lot of fun playing padel. I'll probably play it more often.

For now, the focus for Medvedev is firmly back on tennis. After winning his singles match against Altmaier, Medvedev will now face France's Quentin Halys on Wednesday. Before that, though, he will team up with Rublev in the doubles on Tuesday against French duo Sadio Doumbia/Fabien Reboul.