Daniil Medvedev heaps praise on Carlos Alcaraz's drop shot

The duo are on the opposite sides of the draw at the upcoming Madrid Open, which also features challengers Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud.

Medvedev and Alcaraz have only met twice before, most recently at the Indian Wells final where the young Spanish pretender was simply too hot to handle. In particular, Alcaraz played some devilish drop shots en route to a dominant win.

Speaking to the press ahead of the Madrid Open, acknowledged the skill.

"They are very disguised," said the Russian, as per atptour.com.

"One out of two he's going to make a drop shot, but the one he doesn't make, it's going to be a bomb forehand, so you can't just run for it because then it's going to be a winner. I'm going to be interested to play him more and more to try and see how I can handle this part better."

Players even attempted to mimic Alcaraz in their matchups with Medvedev afterwards, albeit unsuccessfully.

"The next week in Miami I think a lot of guys maybe saw the final, so they started to do only drop shots against me... it's not the same," said the world number three.

"It's like, 'Okay, continue doing it, I'm there!'... against [Carlos], I'm not there. He's playing great and everyone knows it. If you have him in your draw, it's scary."

Medvedev has endured a difficult start to his clay court swing, labouring to a three-set win over Alexander Zverev then getting knocked out in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters.