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NITTO ATP FINALS

November 13, 2019

Daniil Medvedev

London, England, United Kingdom

R. NADAL/D. Medvedev

6-7, 6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you have a sports psychologist on your team?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yes.

Q. I don't need to tell you you had many chances to close out that match, and you did tell us earlier in the week you have had mental struggles since the American/Chinese stretch. So what do you think you need to work on from here to make sure that if you're in that situation again you close it out?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know how to answer the question. I just need to close out such matches. I mean, yeah, probably need to still continue working mentally as I do every day to be better.

Today was not the case. I mean, there were many things to tell not good about my mentality on the court, my attitude. So hopefully I'm not going to have matches like this in my career, but we never know. I'm going to try my best to not have them.

Q. Can you just clarify? Your parents are not here in the UK. Can you explain to us what the circumstances were and how disappointing it was that they couldn't be here because of the visa situations?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, Russians with other countries is always tough talking about visas. I had many problems myself, many problems my girlfriend, and so now it's my parents.

I don't know the rules, so basically you also cannot get any answer so you just have to wait. They still don't have it. I mean, I'm focusing on my game. Didn't work out today, but it's not because they were not here.

Q. Sad?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course, but, I mean, yeah, it's a bit sad. It's more sad for them, because they probably wanted to see me play at the O2.

Q. Never easy to lose after being so close to winning. At what point in the third set did you feel that momentum was switching towards Rafa?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: To be honest with you, completely I felt it after the match point when the match was over, because I still tried to win it, even letting it go from 5-1.

So after the match point, I was, like, okay, that's when I actually lost the match and I cannot go back, so as I say, hopefully I'm not going to have moments like this, but that's tennis.

Rafa fighted his best, because he could just say, okay, it's over at 5-1 and just give me the point, but we all know Rafa is not about this. Yeah.

Q. I have seen you do this before, I think I've seen you do it at Queen's, when you miss a point you give a thumbs up to your box. What is that saying? Is that, yeah, I got this, or get off my back, coach?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Doesn't mean anything obvious. To be honest with you, it's something I feel inside of me and something not good, something disturbing me, something I had a lot when I was younger.

So when I was young I was completely crazy on the court. I couldn't let myself miss one ball. I would throw the racquet over the fence straightaway.

I have been working a lot on it. I have progressed a lot but still not enough. And so, yeah, talking about thumbs up, it's just -- it's just emotions. I would say it's kind of the same -- if I would break the racquet it would be same emotions.

It's anger, which is not good that it's coming towards my team, because they try to help me, which I understand here after the match, but on the court it's tougher with emotions going.

Yeah, so I'm not sure I really answered your question, but it's not easy for me on the court.

Q. Regardless of the outcome of this match or even this tournament, you had an extraordinary season.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: True.

Q. It took its toll, meaning I was wondering what kind of preparation do you have these days, these weeks? Do you practice less because of all the amount of matches that you had this year? What are the restrictions? What are you not able to do to prepare as usual as if you are playing in August, for instance? What are the differences?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Actually, we are trying to do the same thing, trying to practice as hard as I can, to work physically to be 100% fit.

Yeah, it's always a question with my team for next years to come. We always try to analyze after the end of the year, okay, what parts of the season we could have done better, what could we do better, so maybe it's actually next year, if I'm here, luckily, then are we going to say, okay, we need to practice a bit less because last year was too much? Or are we going to say the opposite? We're going to say, okay, it's the end of the season, we have to push even more?

That's a question we have to do for the next year. Talking about right now, no, no, I do the same routine, practice a lot, do a lot of physical preparation. I have to say I don't really have any problems physically, so it's more mental and tennis what happens here.

Q. At the end of the second set, I had the impression, maybe just an impression, that you were a little bit giving it up, you were focusing on the third set. Is it just an impression or is it something that really happened?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I mean, you never give up the points, because it would be stupid, and especially against a player like Rafa. If he feels that he's going to take it straightaway, he's going to take you into his arms.

So for sure I didn't give any points just like this. The thing is that when you play a tennis match, it's always you against an opponent. And again, when it's Rafa, he feels he's 5-3, he can close a set.

It was tough. I had a game point. I think I didn't put too many first serves in. And after it became 6-3, that was when I was completely focusing on the third set.

So it was your impression, but after it happens like this many times in many tennis matches.

Q. Overall, do you think you played better today or maybe the match against Stefanos on Monday?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I played much better today. Still was far from what I want, but I played much better today.

I mean, still have one match to go. Not sure if it's going to mean anything in terms of going to semis, but just going to try to play even better.

Q. If you played Stefanos on Monday the same level as today, do you think you would have won?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Oh, it's really tough to say, because you can play amazing and still lose a match. I do think I would have a little bit more chances to win, but doesn't mean at all that I would win it. I mean, I lost, so there's nothing to talk about.

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