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AEGON CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22, 2017

Daniil Medvedev

London, England

D. MEDVEDEV/T. Kokkinakis

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Watching you, the one word I would say is you were steady today. Were you nervous at all? Because it didn't show.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: First of all, thanks. Yeah, of course I was nervous, nervous almost before every match I play. And especially when you go first time on Queen's centre court, you are a bit tight, but I managed to come through it and play really good tennis. I'm happy with my win.

Q. What do you think are the biggest strengths in your game and on grass, in general?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, especially on grass, because I play very flat, and I like to play very flat with the backhand, I can still put the power on it. So I have a good serve. So it's not really easy to play against me on grass, I guess.

That's my strengths also on other surfaces, but a bit harder to play, especially on clay, but grass is my favorite surface, yeah.

Q. Do you feel good ahead of Wimbledon and how you're playing?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: So far, yes. Also I got my first ATP main draw win on grass. I showed some good tennis last year, even better this year. I'm making good results. So I look forward to Wimbledon and hope I have a good draw.

Q. You're obviously quite a young guy, part of this NextGen batch. Have you set yourself any major goals for the end of the year or is Milan a main target?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Milan is a very good goal, because from the start of the season I was saying it's going to be very strong. I thought, like, top 100 would be enough, but now I see that maybe at the end of the year, you can be top 50 and don't get in there, because all of the guys are playing amazing tennis.

Two Russian guys will play against each other tomorrow in Halle. It's good to see the guys that you were playing juniors with never maybe even dreaming to play at Queen's against Kokkinakis, and it's just very fun journey.

Q. Based on ranking, you just mentioned about goals, you appear on track to have your best year-end performance. I believe 57 was your best ranking and you're at 60 now?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Something like this.

Q. Do you have a target in mind where you'd like to be?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: In my opinion, the ranking is your level of game. If you don't have the level of game, you'll never be top 100 or top 200 or even have ATP points. First goal for me is improve my level of game in practice step by step. Of course to show it on the tennis court, also, because match is a different story. The ranking will come, I think.

But still, of course, I have some goals. I have all my points to defend at the end of the year, so if I can reach top 50 and try to stay there for this year will be good goal.

Q. You mentioned this generation being quite strong in general. The last generation of Raonic, Nishikori, never really broke through the big four strongholds at the top, but your generation will probably get quite a long period of time after they have retired to create your own big four. Who do you see as the strongest four players in your age category and who can we expect to dominate?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a bit of a hard question. Who knows? Maybe the big four will retire and there will be another big four of Raonic, Nishikori, and everyone. You never know. If you ask about our generation, I want to be one of them (smiling).

Three left. Zverev, of course. He's already top 10 at 20. It's amazing achievement the way he is playing. He won a Masters. He has a lot of experience. He has a great chance to be world No. 1 soon, I guess.

Then there are too many guys to tell any names. I mean, everyone is playing amazing. So many guys who were maybe 300 last year are top 100 this year and play good tennis.

I think a lot of them all won an ATP or made a final in ATP, won a lot of challengers. It's just a lot of good guys.

Q. Do you know Khachanov really well?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Of course we are all close friends, me, Khachanov, and Rublev.

Q. Do you find yourself pushing each other more and more to come up? Do you see yourself as the best young Russian of them?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yes, definitely we compete with each other a lot, and you can see this. As soon as one gets good result somewhere, the others try to also make it. Of course you will try to make it even if you don't have other Russian guys, but it has been like this all our life. We were always trying to be the first of three. And as I said, they are playing against each other tomorrow, so we are all playing good tennis right now. Rublev will be top 100 next week for first time, and I'm really happy for all of us.

Q. Next up is Grigor, a prior champion. You have an opportunity for your first title.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Of course I'm going to try my best tomorrow. As we said, I like grass, and it's not easy to play against me. I'm looking forward to play against Grigor because he's a great player, and I'm enjoying playing these tournaments against such players.

Q. Milan, in general, there are new rules being tried there. As a young guy, do you think tennis needed that sort of change in general? What do you think of the changes they are going to experiment with?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a hard question, also. I guess we need to try this. And still, even if it will be a good experience, it will be so hard to give any new rules to tennis, because I don't know how much those rules were here for, but I guess like 50 years minimum.

So to change anything can be a good idea, can be a bad idea. It's not for me to decide, but it's going to be really fun to play with these rules in Milan, to try them. It's going to be a fun tournament.

Q. Is there any rule that you particularly see off that list and you think, I really like that or don't like that?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I'm not that good physically. I like that we play up to four games (smiling). I really like it. It will be hard to play -- it's still hard for me right now to play out of five sets.

Q. One of the rules in Milan is that the crowd will be able to walk during games, during the point.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I didn't know this, actually. Good to know.

Q. You seem to be very calm on court, today and other day. Is this something that comes natural to you, or do you make a lot of effort? You train yourself to stay calm and focused, to not appear nervous?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a big effort for me, because I'm not the calmest guy in the world. I had some stories already in my career, especially when I was a kid. Let's say when I was playing juniors, I was always missing like one month, because you get penalty points for code violations. If you get 10, you miss one month of tournaments. I think I missed like five months like this. I was just insane on the court.

So I'm improving, and I'm proud of myself to stay calm. I hope to be better and better mentally.

Q. You mentioned other Russian players and pushing each other. Do you think the competition for you guys right now is among each other, among other NextGen players, or with the whole tour?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, as I said before, of course even if I would be the only young guy right now, I would still try to be better and better every day, try to win some tournaments, but it's really good that there are so many, that there is this race to Milan where you need to be in top 7, and I'm sure it's gonna be a very close one in the end of the season.

And the same for the Russian guys. As I said, we really want to be the best ones in our country, so I hope to catch Khachanov soon.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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