For a man with 25 titles, Daniil Medvedev has always been strangely wary of his own form. He talks about a good level as something that visits rather than stays, even in weeks when he is winning everything in sight, as he was on his way to the Indian Wells final this spring.

On Sunday in Almaty, an hour after beating qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-3 to defend a title for the first time in his career, he allowed himself a different thought.

“If I can continue to play at the level I’m playing right now, I’ll have my chances to basically beat any opponent, and that gives you the chance to win the tournaments,” Medvedev said. “Then you can always face someone who plays well. For example, Rafael played a great match against me in Shanghai. Nikoloz here played a great set against me, but I managed to turn things around.”

The title, the 25th of his career, was his fourth of the season, after Brisbane, Dubai and Hangzhou. It lifts him past Flavio Cobolli into fifth place in the Race to Turin, with 3,670 points. Medvedev, ranked No. 5, had arrived in Almaty tired after losing to Rafael Jodar in the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters 1000.

“This year I had some really bright moments, and it gives a lot of hope that I can continue building on this and try to raise my level a bit more,” he said. “So the goal is to improve, to try to play well.”

‘Vienna will be tough’

His schedule leaves him little time to rest. Medvedev is due to play the Vienna ATP 500 next week and warned that the turnaround would be difficult.

“Look, I’m playing well, but Vienna will be tough. It’s a long flight. It’s a Wednesday start, not a Thursday start,” he said. “I’m feeling good physically, in a way. I don’t have any injuries, so I’ll try my best. Two tournaments left, and then hopefully Turin. So just one last push before I get some rest.”

He said he had felt fresh in the final, helped by the short semifinal, when Alexander Bublik retired with a knee injury after one set. “Sascha being injured in the semis gave me an extra push in the final, and I am happy to finally do it,” Medvedev said. “I had my chances in the first set. I got a bit unlucky. I knew I would probably have my chances to turn the match around, and it was not easy.”

Medvedev won the Vienna title in 2022 and reached the final as defending champion the following year. He is the No. 3 seed this time and opens on Wednesday against Daniel Merida of Spain, who won the Umag title this season as world No. 82 and reached the Bucharest final as a qualifier. The draw projects No. 8 seed Jakub Mensik in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals, with top seed Alexander Zverev in the other half. A semifinal against Alcaraz would be the place to test that belief that he can ‘basically beat any opponent.’