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CITI OPEN

August 1, 2019

Daniil Medvedev

Washington D.C.

D. Medvedev/F. Tiafoe

6-2, 7-5

Q. What were your thoughts on that point in the first -- I guess when you were serving at 5-4, what was your thought when you won that point? You were probably not looking at Frances turning his back on the point, but what was your thought?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's really funny because when I saw him make this volley, at first I saw the ball really far, so I thought, I'm going to need to make a tweener, and I'm not good at them so I'll probably miss. At the last moment I see that I am on the ball so I'm like, okay, I'm just going to put it in, and I turned my head, and I understand that he thought he won the point, and so I'm like, okay, I'll take it. Because if he would be at the net he would kill it. I think it's a really funny point, and it's good to have points like this in the match.

Q. Before the 5-4 game your serve was just on fire. Do you feel for 2019 that that was the best you've served in a match or do you feel it was equal to some other matches where you've served well?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, I can serve good. I don't know how to serve too strong, like I don't think you will see me serve a 130-mile serve, maybe one per match. But if not, it's quite explosive and can be precise. It's definitely not the best service match I had, but it's a really good one, and I'm happy about it, and I hope I'm going to have all of them in D.C. like this.

Q. It seems like you have gone about business this week playing well, winning matches, and now you're finally into another qualify round. Would you consider this to have been a good week for you, getting your hard court season under way and looking towards the US Open?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it's definitely already a good week. I mean, I went through the jet lag. I'm sleeping good. I'm eating good. I'm feeling healthy. I'm playing good. Of course I want to back it up with some more wins, and great match to come tomorrow. Marin beat Felix easy today, so I think he's in great shape, and it's going to also show what I'm capable of this summer in the U.S.

Q. I was actually going to ask about Marin. I was looking to see your head-to-head; you haven't played him. I'm sure you know his game quite well. What do you expect out of that?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, we've practiced a few times, never played. I mean, his game is strong. He hits the ball strong. He serves strong. And especially we all know what he's capable of when he's in good shape. I think he's trying to find it back, and I haven't seen the match today yet, but I guess he was playing good, so I need to try to push his back in shape to the next week, you know.

Q. I don't think I've talked to you since Miami where you had a pretty good run, and I'm curious what you make of your last few months. Obviously in Monte-Carlo you beat Djokovic, which is a good win, and then you got into top 10. How would you sort of rate your -- some ups and downs, but how would you rate your European swing overall?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, as you say, there were ups and downs, exactly. There were some matches I maybe not should have won but could have won, and I didn't win them. But at the same time I still remained quite solid when I was feeling good. When I was feeling bad, I was not solid, and those were the downs. But in general, I mean, I broke the top 10. I'm No. 8 in the race. I'm feeling strong in my game when I'm feeling good, as I said, so in general I'm only looking forward for the better things.

Q. I know you're a big video game player. What do you think of the selection here?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Oh, it's amazing. I mean, it was the same in Basel, and I beat my coach in NHL there all the time, but he was practicing all the week, and the last match he was leading 2-0 and I won 3-2 in overtime, so here we played, I won 7-1 with one period left, so now he's practicing all week, and we're going to see at the end of the tournament who wins.

Q. What team do you use?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It depends. Here I was using Columbus because of Panarin.

Q. What has allowed you to make the progress that you have? Everyone is trying to get into the top 10, but since we've seen you over the past years you've made the progression. What's contributed to that success and that consistency?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I mean, of course tennis is a really difficult sport with a lot of confidence. I think first of all, I see the game good. I choose good tactics against different players, and I choose a game that I try to make my opponent kind of suffer, to make more mistakes or something like this, but the most important thing is the hard work that I've been putting in the two last years. I was always working hard, but the last two and a half years I really dedicated my life to tennis, and it really worked out.

Q. I understand that you're married, which I didn't know. I missed that news. It's a little bit unusual on tour at your age to be married, although I know your compatriot Karen is also married and then Taylor Fritz is married young. So I'm just curious, your wife is traveling with you, too, and I'm -- I don't want to get into your personal life, obviously, but I'm curious what role she plays because she's kind of a member of your team, not just your wife, right?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course. I mean, she's one of the most important members of my team. She gave me a lot of confidence. I always say that it's the moment I made the proposal to her, that's when I started to go up. It was at this moment -- it was after Wimbledon. I was, I think, 65 or something like this, and at the end of the year I was already 15. I mean, I made the best American swing I could have made last year, and it was only going up, and she does a lot for me in order for me to play better tennis. I'm talking about small things in life that would take my attention, she cares about them, and I just have to play tennis and win some matches.

Q. Top 10 in the rankings, top one in the husband rankings right there and probably top one in the Taste of Tennis rankings because it seemed like you had a great time the other night at Taste of Tennis. What was your most fun moment at Taste of Tennis, and how are your chef skills?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it was really fun because it was my first time doing it. I heard a lot about it that there was good food and stuff but never saw it. In fact I didn't have to cook anything. Everything was ready, so I just had to put the soup in the thing with the spoon and then the second one I was putting mango sauce on a lobster cake. But what I can say is that the food was amazing there, and it's really fun, and it's for a good cause.

Q. You've played a lot of tournaments. I saw a stat today that the points that don't count on your ranking would be enough to get somebody into like the top 70 at this point. I'm curious what --
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: That's funny.

Q. I don't know if you knew that before, but how do you do your schedule? Are you trying to play as much as possible or are you trying to scale back now that you're a top 10 guy and winning more and going deeper? How do you think about that?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: At this moment I think my last 250 tournament -- where was it? Was it Sofia that I won? Yeah, I think it was Sofia that I won. So I'm trying to play higher ranked tournaments. At the same time, I saw that even in the race, winning today I didn't get any points.

Q. I think you need to make the final here to get points.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Okay, that's kind of unlucky, because as I said, I was not feeling that good in Madrid and Rome. Paris doesn't count. I was feeling great. I lost a great match. But Madrid and Rome I was not feeling good. I was a bit injured, and it's really unlucky, because as you say, they're the (indiscernible) tournaments and I got 10 points in each of them, and with the other points, maybe I could have got on Karen already and be eight in the rankings, but that's how the rankings are, and I need to go with it.

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