Medvedev keen for clay play before Paris

Daniil Medvedev said he was ready and raring to go as he returns from a hernia operation, tuning up for next week's French Open on the Geneva clay.

The world number two underwent surgery last month after losing in the quarter-finals in Miami, missing the early clay-court season.

"It's never been easy for me on a clay court to start good straight away. So even one tournament is going to be good to prepare," he told reporters.

"I'm feeling good physically, I'm feeling ready."

The US Open champion said playing in this week's 28-man, best-of-three-sets tournament in Geneva would help him sharpen up for the best-of-five Grand Slam in Paris.

"From what I can see, the conditions are very similar to Roland-Garros, where the balls fly around and the clay is fairly hard," the 26-year-old Russian said.

"The most important thing for me is to play at least one match -- of course I'm hoping to play more -- in order to be ready to play five-set matches, if I have to.

"Even one, two or three matches here could help me be more ready to play at Roland-Garros."

Medvedev and Denis Shapovalov had a knockabout on the Lake Geneva shore as they posed for photos.

Top seed Medvedev has a bye into the round of 16 and will face either France's Richard Gasquet or John Millman of Australia.