Sonego, Taurus heart ready for Medvedev: the full taste of (im)possible challenges
He has a very clear goal for 2023, Lorenzo Soneo. Today number 45 in the world, he is aiming for the Top 20 which would mean improving his best ranking of number 21. The first test in Adelaide-1 sees him immediately facing world number 7 Daniil Medvedev for one of those challenges that seem impossible but give sense to workouts and efforts to chase a dream. Come Turinfor which he played from six to thirteen together with Aramu and Barreca who then arrived in Serie A. “I don’t like those who always win, I prefer to fight and suffer, even on the tennis court” he told Repubblica a month ago.
Awarded at the SuperTennis Awards for victories in the Davis Cup against the American Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalovwhich gave him further certainties after the triumph in Metz achieved without ever losing his serve, Sonego is working to build a more aggressive and enterprising tennis.
Arbino Coach, sort of second father for Lorenzo who listens to the matches even more than him, you insist so much on the answer. In 2022 Sonego scored 30.7% of points against first serve opponents, more than 1% more than in 2021, but there are 26 players who have done better than him, including Medvedev, his first opponent of 2023 .
In the season just ended, Arbino explained to SuperTennisSonego “for the first time lost his ranking, otherwise he had always risen, since he was number 200 and up to number 21. Small steps at times, but up to a very important ranking. For a series of situations, he lost 500 points in the summer, between Wimbledon and Eastbourne, where among other things he had a bad wrist and could only play a slice backhand. He has a strong character, able to react. He has also improved in his weak points and has optimized his strong points .Today I can say that it is stronger than before”.
Sonego, the strength of lightness
The natural lightness and the good season finale prepare the best conditions to approach the match against Medvedev who will project the winner in the second round against the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, without the Argentine David Nalbandian as coach, or the Australian wild card Christopher O’ Connel.
“I started late and I was never predestined. Until I was 17-18 I lived day by day without thinking about the future” said Sonego, who also as a professional maintains his usual lightness and the strength to have fun. An extra strength that enhances the seriousness of his way of training and being, even together with his girlfriend Alice who introduced him to his friend Matteo Berrettini. “It’s still a bit early to make plans, but in the meantime I’m looking for a house in Turin,” he told Repubblica.
Lightness and could thus become precious bricks with which to pave the way to conquer the fifth victory in the nineteenth challenge against a Top 10 in his career. A series that began with what defined the match of life, 62 61 in Vienna in 2020 on Novak Djokovic, which the winner could then find himself in the semifinals at Memorial Drive in Adelaide. Where anyway the tournament started under the banner of surpriseswith the eliminations at the debut of the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and the Danish Next Gen Holger Rune, the champion of Paris-Bercy.
Medvedev and that trust to rediscover
Medvedev, on the contrary, he has archived a season by his less positive standards than expected in which he has won two titles (the 250 of Los Cabos and the 500 of Vienna), half compared to 2021 in which he also triumphed at the Masters 1000 in Montreal and at the US Open, and lost his place as number 1 in the world. His 2022 ended with four defeats in a row. And at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, where Sonego dreams of qualifying at least once, he lost three out of three games in the third set tiebreak.
The one against Sonego will be his first game in Australia since the painful final loss against Rafa Nadal at the 2022 Australian Open, a defeat he confessed to having absorbed only after a long time. The prospect of a possible semifinal against Djokovic is one of the reasons of interest of the tournament. “There are many excellent players on the draw, so everyone has to be at their best right away – said Medvedev -. But if you win a few games in the first tournament of the year with these opponents, it’s definitely good”.
In any case, getting to the end interests Medvedev more than any opponent. “Being at least in the semifinal counts and motivates me – he said -. Then if Djokovic is there it’s great, if not it means that there was someone capable of beating what is probably the best player in the world today”.