MADRID, August 23. /TASS/. World No. 2 Spaniard Rafael Nadal believes that Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev has been playing impressive tennis in the last few weeks, reaching three finals in a row in consecutive tournaments and winning his first Masters title, Nadal said in an exclusive interview with TASS.

The last three weeks saw 23-year-old Medvedev playing three prestigious tournaments and making it to the finals in each of them. On August 4, he was defeated by Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in the Citi Open final in Washington, while Rafael Nadal overpowered Medvedev in the Coupe Rogers final in Canadian Montreal, where the Russian reached his first Masters final, on August 11. A week later, on August 19, Medvedev broke his losing streak in finals when he conquered his first-ever Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters title, prevailing over Belgian David Goffin in the Western & Southern Open final in Cincinnati, US. These results and his first Masters title catapulted Medvedev into the Top-5 in the ATP rankings. The Russian is currently sitting at No.5, his career-high ranking.

"Medvedev was playing impressively in August, also winning his first ATP 1000 title [after winning the Masters tournament — TASS]. In the final that I contested with him, he possibly did not display all his talent, but the next week showed that his previous results were not a coincidence," Nadal said.

The Spaniard also praised the results of 23-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov (No. 9 in the ATP rankings). "I know Karen very well and believe that the moment will come when he will accomplish great things. He has already been victorious at important tournaments, has played very important matches. Many people remember the match we played at the last year’s US Open [the athletes faced off in the third round, with Nadal prevailing in four sets — TASS]. Undoubtedly, it was one of the best matches of the whole tournament," Nadal pointed out.

When asked who he believed to be the best Russian tennis player among those he shared tennis court with, Nadal said the following: "There are many of them, but I always had tough matches against Nikolay Davydenko."

Nadal is ranked second by the number of Grand Slam victories in the history of tennis (18). The Spaniard is a two-time Wimbledon champion (2008, 2010), 12-time French Open winner (2005-2008, 2010-2014, 2017-2019), three-time US Open champion (2010, 2013, 2017) and one-time Australian Open winner (2009). Swiss Roger Federer is holding the all-time record of Grand Slam victories (20).