World number two Daniil Medvedev of Moscow, Russia will be out one to two months after he announced he will have surgery on his hernia according to Sam Goodwin of Yahoo! Sports on Saturday. The injury has been ongoing apparently and been plaguing Medvedev for months.
At the Miami Open this past week, Medvedev was seeded first, but lost to Wimbledon semifinalist Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, 7-6, 6-3. Medevdev was ranked first in the world for a brief time earlier this year when Novak Djokovic of Serbia was upset by Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Tennis Championship. However, Djokovic returned to number one in the world, when Medvedev lost in the third round at Indian Wells to Gael Monfils of France, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
In Miami this past week, Medvedev could have returned to number one in the world if he reached the semifinals, but was unable to do so. Djokovic meanwhile missed Indian Wells and Miami because of American vaccination rules for coronavirus.
Due to the hernia injury, Medvedev will miss most of the ATP’s clay court season, and an appearance at the French Open is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, there is a chance Medvedev might miss Wimbledon even if he is healthy. That is because the All-England Club is in discussion with the British government about banning Russian and Belarussian tennis players due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine according to Ed Elliott of the Daily Mail. Among other athletes impacted would be Andrey Rublev, Aryna Sabalenka, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Viktoria Azarenka.
