	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

US OPEN

August 23, 2019

Daniil Medvedev

New York, NY, USA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Such great results lately. How does it do for your confidence coming here to the US Open and being one of the favorites?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I mean, I don't consider myself as one of the favorites just because at this moment of my career I haven't even been in a quarterfinal of a slam. So I say that if I get to the quarterfinal, it's going to be already a step forward and I'm going to be really happy about it.

But the three weeks I made really pushed a lot my confidence. Now I know that when I play my best tennis I can beat basically everybody, and that's what I need to keep doing here.

Q. Over the last two months, beating basically any of the other top seeds, how do you feel physically coming in to this tournament, and what do you feel you have to do to break through in a Grand Slam here?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Of course I was feeling really tired physically in Cincinnati, but I made the great job with my team to be 100% here. I think I'm already close to 100%, and I have two more days till Monday, till my first match. So I think I'm going to be completely ready.

As I say, I need to play my best game, but I need to also take care of the five-setters, because at this moment of my life, I would say I haven't been that good in them, especially in four or five sets, so I need to get experience of playing them more and to win some.

Q. Is diet important for your preparation? Do you have a go-to meal before your matches?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course it's really important, especially during the tournament, because before the tournament I try to relax my mind a little bit; otherwise you cannot spend one year on the tour. So I don't care that much about the diet.

But especially when the tournament starts, I start to know, okay, every minute when do I have to eat, what do I have to eat? Usually before the match I just eat pasta with chicken.

Q. The young guys sometimes it's not fair because you haven't had that many experiences playing five sets like the other players, but you guys take care of your body. So do you guys do any type of exercise for the mind? I heard Jiu-Jitsu might be good for when you find stress, going through emotional stress. Do you guys work on that type of stuff?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know if for everybody. Me, I have one person working with me on my mental strengths. But it's not only for Grand Slams. It's throughout the year.

I can say I never did Jiu-Jitsu, sorry, but as I say, I don't know about other guys, but me, of course I'm trying to work on it a lot.

Q. You have talked a little bit about committing yourself to tennis over the past two years. What specifically does that mean? Particularly over the last six months, what do you feel has clicked in your game?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I always said that it was about two-and-a-half years ago where I kind of said to myself, Okay, now I need to really dedicate my life to tennis. Even if it sounds boring, it has worked a lot for me, as you can see, and that was the biggest change in my career.

I would say last six months nothing really clicked. It was really going already this way the end of last season. I was gaining experience every big match I played. Against Roger, Rafa, or Novak, I was gaining experience. I was taking it with me to the first tournaments, and at one moment I just understood what I need to do to win more matches.

Q. With everything that a tennis player goes through with their legs, knees, all the running around and everything, how much should people think about their equipment as far as having the right racquet for their elbows and wrists and to make sure that the equipment is not causing them more injuries that you're going to get from the other stuff?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course. I mean, everything in tennis is really important. I'm not sure about amateur level, because, well, I'm playing professionally.

But of course it's very important to have good shoes, good racquet, to take care of yourself, to not play four hours in a row if you're not ready to do it.

I mean, I think the most important is just to listen to your body and to kind of feel, okay, if you did two hours of practice and you feel that your knee starts to hurt, you need to stop your practice. You should not say to yourself, Okay, I'm going to do one more and it will stop hurting.

Q. Noah Rubin, an American player, young like you, and he just said that the tour is a very lonely place. You know, you're young. You recently got married. How important it is for you, like, to have a life outside of tennis for your success on the court?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Me, I don't feel the life on the tour lonely. I think it's because I'm kind of a closed person, not that open. That's why I feel good, being alone with myself. I have my friends around me. Of course my wife, my coach, my team and some friends on the tour who help me a lot to just feel good in my life. Especially my wife, I need to say, I mean, that's the biggest change in my life. I never feel lonely on the tour. I feel very good.

Q. You have obviously been getting a lot more attention because of your on-court success. How have you handled the stardom and attention with the media? Do you feel it's been easy or difficult to do that?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I have to stay it's not that easy, because before I was also getting some attention, but now, as you say, it really grew, I would say, 10 times more.

I think I should just gain experience of this. Hopefully I will get only more attention in the future, meaning that I play even better.

At this moment, I'm gaining experience of how should I manage it the best, to be the best on the tennis court, because it's still the most important.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297