Novak Djokovic calls him a "very complete" player and Alexander Zverev says he has a unique style that makes him the best in men's tennis on current, breathtaking form.
Now Daniil Medvedev is homing in on Roger Federer's third place in the world rankings before the year is out and chasing a first Grand Slam title next year.
The 23-year-old Russian said he had been "invincible" as he won the Shanghai Masters with a ruthless 6-4, 6-1 demolition of Zverev on Sunday.
After Medvedev defeated another young talent in Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals, the 21-year-old Greek described Medvedev's way of winning as "boring".
"So he has a huge serve and if you manage to get it back, it's just countless balls inside the court... (all) you can do is hit as hard as you can side to side, be accurate, and make him move.
"Otherwise you can just play it back to him and play it again and play it again.
"It just keeps coming back, keeps coming back." Sour grapes? Perhaps. Medvedev and Tsitsipas have what Zverev called "a weird relationship".
But effective? Certainly, because Shanghai was Medvedev's sixth final in a row. Even before losing to him for the first time in five meetings on Sunday, the 22-year-old Zverev said that Medvedev was the best player in the world right now.
And after losing the final to him in straight sets, the sixth-ranked German gave an insight into what makes the fourth-ranked Russian so hard to beat. Zverev took issue with the "boring" tag.
"I actually think the opposite. Daniil is somebody that plays a way that we have never seen before," said Zverev.
"That is not boring to me."
"Sometimes that's maybe why it looks on TV or from the outside that players are not playing as aggressive against him as against others, but I feel like he doesn't let you."
- 'Something clicked' -
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