Daniil Medvedev arrived in Almaty tired and with his place at the ATP Finals still not secured. He still saw no case for staying home: a few days of rest at this stage of the season, he said, would have given him nothing.

The world No. 5 is sixth in the Race to Turin and has not yet qualified for the season finale. He came to Kazakhstan straight from the Shanghai Masters 1000. There, the 2019 champion was the last former winner left in the draw before losing in the semifinals to Rafael Jodar, the 20-year-old Spaniard now close to the Top 10.

Not only Turin

That defeat ended a strong Chinese swing. Medvedev won the Hangzhou title, reached the semifinals in Beijing and had won 11 of his 12 matches in China this year before facing Jodar. He has three titles this season and leads the ATP Tour in hard-court wins.

Medvedev won the title last year, beating Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. The top seed opens his defense against Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro, ranked No. 109, who came back to beat Roman Safiullin 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday.

He said the decision to come to Almaty was not only about Turin, and it was not a hard one.

If I had decided to skip Almaty, it would have made absolutely no sense.

“First of all, I was with my wife and kids in Shanghai. We were also here last year together, so we decided to come back because it’s a nice place for kids,” Medvedev said. “If I had decided to skip Almaty, it would have made absolutely no sense to skip just Almaty; I would have needed to skip Vienna as well, because if you only skip Almaty, you come back home for three days, and it gives you absolutely nothing for the end of the season.”

“I also like this tournament here and have commitments to it, so altogether it was in a way an easy decision to come here. For sure I’m a bit tired, but it’s not the first time in my career that I’m tired, so I’m just going to try.”

The hat the tournament gave him last year never made it onto his head. “I didn’t wear it,” he said. “But I have a wardrobe at home where I have all kinds of cool souvenirs from all over the world because they’re all good memories, so it’s probably in this wardrobe.”