Daniil Medvedev's Australian Open practice session inspires hilarious meme with the Russian in ballet flats; leaves Daria Saville in splits

Daniil Medvedev's practice pictures are garnering a lot of interest from fans. In the pictures, it looked like he was wearing ballet flats instead of tennis shoes.

Medvedev is currently in Melbourne as he gears up to start his season at the 2024 Australian Open. Previously, he has finished as runner-up on two occasions in the first Grand Slam of the season, in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, he lost to Sebastian Korda in the third round.

Recently, a meme of Medvedev has been doing the rounds on social media. It is a photo of the Russian wearing green ballet flats with white socks from a practice session. What caught everybody's eye was the footwear the US Open champion wore.

The picture caught the eye of another tennis player Daria Saville, who found the picture very hilarious.

Although the picture gave the illusion of green ballet flats, in reality, it was green and white shoes paired with white socks.

Daniil Medvedev pictured practicing for the 2024 Australian Open

Daniil Medvedev is yet to begin his campaign in the new year. He decided to skip all the warm-up tournaments leading up to the 2024 Australian Open.

Medvedev talked about his decision at a press conference at the 2023 ATP Finals after his loss to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.

“I'm probably going to play only Australian Open. Going to try like this to have more of a vacation time than usual and more of a off-season time and start with a Slam straight away, which is going to be new for me. But let's see," Medvedev said.

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How Daniil Medvedev performed in 2023?

Daniil Medvedev at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals

Daniil Medvedev had an excellent run in the 2023 season. He won five titles, including two Masters 1000, two ATP 500, and one ATP 250 title. The Russian also reached the final at the 2023 US Open.

Medvedev got the better of Jannik Sinner in the Rotterdam Open final to win his first title of the season. He then beat Andy Murray in the final at the Qatar Open. The US Open champion also won the Dubai Tennis Championships by defeating compatriot Andrey Rublev.

At the Miami Open, the Russian defeated Jannik Sinner again to claim the title. Next, he prevailed over Holger Rune to win his second Masters 1000 of the season at the Italian Open.

The Russian suffered early exits at the Australian Open and the French Open, but turned around his fortunes in the remaining Grand Slams. He had a good run at the Wimbledon and US Open, reaching the semifinals at the SW19 and finals at Flushing Meadows.