The one-time Grand Slam winner Daniil Medvedev said he wants to focus on more spin and sharpen his slide to develop his game.
The 27-year-old has previously described himself as a "hard court specialist" as he has won 18 of his 19 titles, on hard courts including the 2021 US Open.
The Russian star known for flat groundstrokes and all-court coverage will be in action at the Italian Open this month.
When asked about what he has to do to further improve his game on clay, Medvedev specifically talked about “more spin and sliding”.
[Playing with] some more spin,” Medvedev said in his pre-tournament press conference. “Especially the sliding, I think the sliding was always a problem [for me]. After Madrid, after I lost, a couple days I practised there, I tried to focus on the sliding, on the movement. I felt like I improved in these couple of days.”
He also talked about his fitness saying he is in great shape and is definitely looking forward to playing some matches.
“I feel great physically. Every day I'm trying to put [together a] strong session and try to work on small things with my coach,” Medvedev said. “It has been working great, so I'm looking forward to try and play the same in the matches because it's never the same.”
The Russian seemed pleased with his recent practice sessions as he said that he has not been missing many balls.
“These two days [practising], I was playing really good clay tennis. I was not missing many balls here these last two days. It was tough for my opponents. Again, you never know. I say all this, but maybe first match it’s not the case. But it’s good to have some good practice. I was really happy about it,” he added.
The Russian star will open against Frenchman Ugo Humbert or World No. 43 Emil Ruusuvuori in search of his first win in Rome in four appearances. 27-year-old is seeded to meet Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals of the tournament.