Daniil Medvedev lulls Dominik Koepfer to sleep at Miami Open

Dominik Koepfer had hope for much of the first set against Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round of the Miami Open. He was hitting shots with amazing touch, while Medvedev was struggling with consistency, and Koepfer never seemed to be playing over his head. But then the roof fell in.

Medvedev, even though he was not playing perfectly, might have set up what happened in the second set from the start. Koepfer does not have the power in his game to shoot balls past Medvedev often. Instead, the two would get into long rallies playing Medvedev's style. Eventually, the Russian is going to create his own breaks and the other player just needs to learn to be patient.

But Koepfer couldn't. He began to speed up his serves and his emotions began to boil over a bit and he lost focus. This is what Medvedev does to a player, though. He keeps his opponent thinking they have a chance to win until they realize they are about to get destroyed in the final set of the match. Unless a player is special with an arsenal of tools, the ATP No. 4 is likely to win.

Daniil Medvedev played a style that Dominik Koepfer failed to match at the Miami Open

This is especially true on hard courts where of the more than 80 Medvedev has most recently played, he has made the finals in 33 of them. Not just deep runs in tournaments, but finals. Yet, Medvedev has never won a tournament twice for some odd reason. This could be because tennis is now ruled by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, two young players who move extremely well but can at times overpower the Russian.

Still, the Miami Open fourth-round match with Koepfer was classic Medvedev as the first set lasted more than an hour due to the long rallies. But as Koepfer knew he needed to try to win points more quickly or the match would end with a slow misery, the German missed too many points and the second set only lasted a bit over 30 minutes. The Russian won 7-6(5) 6-0.

Daniil Medvedev has a very real chance of winning in Miami as the court is ready-made for his style. If he does, he will have won a tournament a second time for the very first time. The key for his opponent, however, is not to play his style, which is what Dominik Koepfer failed horribly at on Tuesday.

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