On the evidence of this year and last, tennis fans can pull out their 2027 diaries, flick through to late August and pencil in “Daniil Medvedev gets weird.”One year on from his memorable, quotable and entirely indefensible meltdown in the first round of the U.S. Open, Medvedev, the 2021 champion in New York, used a changeover at a tuneup in Winston-Salem, N.C. to meditate on his career options and the nature of sports.“Maybe I should start a career in pickleball,” Medvedev, the top seed at the Winston-Salem Open after taking a wild card, mused during a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to 22-year-old American Martin Damm.“Not too late. Doubles … With Jack Sock,” he said, referring to the former pro who moved into pickleball after retiring from tennis and has won eight titles on the circuit. Sock, 33, also won four Grand Slam doubles titles in tennis and Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.Medvedev was not done with his exploration of sporting possibility.“Every sport on this planet is better, man,” he said, turning to the chair umpire.“Even curling right now.” What a way to catch a stray.Tennis' latest controversy: Are the balls round?Charlie EccleshareMedvedev, 30, is having the kind of season that might drive a player toward intrusive, existential thoughts — even before considering the fact that he is predisposed to them like few sports stars are. After a dismal first nine months of 2025, he split with longtime coach Gilles Cervara, and hired Thomas Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion.The switch appeared to revitalize Medvedev, who showed signs of life toward the end of the year and started 2026 with a title at the Brisbane International. After their partnership ended, Cervara had used a Medvedevian image to explain why the eight-year relationship, which saw Medvedev win that U.S. Open title and reach world No. 1, had to end. In an interview with Tennis Majors, he said:“The team around a player is like an engine—a complex machine that drives forward. When it runs at full power, you go fast. At some point the engine stops, but you don’t see it because the boat continues gliding. After a while, that energy is gone, and you’re stuck mid-sea, trying to restart that engine.”