DANIIL Medvedev took a massive step forward in his career this year, bolting up the rankings to as high as world number four, before ending the year at five.

Rank: #5
Wins: 59
Losses: 21
Titles: 4
Prize Money: $7,833,320

It was a heavy workload for the up-and-coming Russian who managed to move up to as high as four from 16 in what was effectively his fourth proper ATP Tour season, and second title-winning season. After breaking through for his first title in January 2018 at Sydney, Medvedev shot up from world number 84 to 16, and then continued the momentum to be a top five ranked player this year. He won a couple of massive tournaments in ATP Masters 1000s at Cincinnati and Shanghai, as well as a title in his home country in St Petersburg and also Sofia. He is still yet to win a title on a surface other than hard court, but that will be the next step in his development. Whilst he was ranked number four coming into the ATP Finals, losses to Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev – the latter two of whom he beat in Shanghai – meant he slipped to number five.

Medvedev is still finding his consistency, having been bundled out first round in the Paris Masters by 65th ranked Jeremy Chardy, and a straight sets loss to 52nd ranked Nick Kyrgios in Washington. His most disappointing run of games would have been throughout May where he lost first round encounters in Madrid, Rome and at Roland Garros. He is a strong hard court player, but holds just a 63 and 62 per cent record on grass and clay this year, with his claycourt work particularly needing improvement. He also won just 25 per cent of his matches after dropping the first set – much lower than the other top five players.

Overall, Medvedev still has a fair way to go to reach the elite players on the tour, but he is still young and has made big steps thus far in season 2019.