NITTO ATP FINALS

November 16, 2020

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. Zverev

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How important was it following the result in Paris, was that result for you tonight in London?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course Paris was really important. Just played each other a week ago, and I think for the continuance it stays there a little bit that I won. Of course it's not always the case, because I think we even see sometimes when somebody gets out from quallies, beats a guy, then loses to him as a Lucky Loser.

But still it's more about the whole tournament than Paris. I was playing really good. I found some of my marks, which helped me to get through the match today, which was very important.

Q. The underarm serve, was that a spur-of-the-moment thing? Had you been planning it? Just tell us about the decision-making.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, not planning it at all. I can do it sometimes, let's say, once a week, once, twice, once in two weeks on practice, just maybe a first serve to start, to laugh with my opponent or something like this.

So while I knew I'm able to at least put it in, because that's the most important, if you miss your underarm serve, then you have a second serve and you will be much more tighter than if you miss a normal serve. So that's first part.

I did it once on clay at Roland Garros, because on clay it's tougher to serve aces or something like this. Guys are far back. And it worked.

Here it was just in the moment. I saw him really far. I was thinking, okay, where do I go? And I felt like, okay, at this moment I don't see an obvious choice and I had the ball really close to my racquet. I'm, like, he's so far. He's going to have trouble having it.

And he had trouble. He actually made a good shot to bring it back, but I managed to win the point, and that's the most important. I won't be doing this often I think.

Q. When you play successful like you did last year and like last week in Paris and then today, what makes the difference? Is it the patience that you have while you're playing?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, first of all, it's normal. We can see this in every sport. Especially tennis is an individual sport that you have some up-and-downs, and that's where I always say the Big Three are unbelievable, because when they have the down, they still don't lose matches. So that's why they are the Big Three. That's why it's like this.

And we, all the other guys, we have some matches where we can play not as good. Yeah, I had these matches also. Now I'm on the rise, if we can say like this, of course after Paris. As I said, I found some marks with my tennis. My serve is working well. I know which shot I have to choose. So it's a lot about confidence and some energy, which I cannot explain, and hopefully I will learn to use it throughout my career.

Q. Before your time, this tournament was three-out-of-five sets in the final, as was Davis Cup and all Masters 1000s. Now pretty much it's just the majors that have three-out-of-five sets. Would you like to see them go two out of three, or would you like to see some of these other tournaments go back to three-out-of-five sets? And why?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a tough question, because I actually saw that Rafa and Novak were answering probably your question. I'm not sure. They went completely opposite ways.

I always say that me personally, not talking about history or something special, if you ask me, I would prefer out of three sets just because I play better in three-setters.

Young generation, I don't know what's different, but I feel like we are actually less good than again the Big Three, but they are so good in everything, in these five-setters, but actually to see maybe some Masters finals or ATP Finals, the actual final in five sets is something special also.

So it's a tough question. I saw some comments that somebody said, Okay, let's do five-setters from quarters in majors. Of course I think it's not going to be the case, so again, if you ask me, I would do it three sets, but I know that that's not so popular opinion.

Q. Some people may say the underarm serve is disrespectful to the opponent, but would you say it's part of modern-day tennis?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, for sure. I don't know if, because I think some people used it before, but of course now with especially Nick and Bublik, it became really a part of tennis, let's call it like this. And even if you see Bublik interviews, he likes to have fun on the court, but he says he doesn't want to disrespect his opponent with this. He's just having fun on the court.

As I say, I did it not at 40-Love on my serve just and to laugh and to mock him. I did it at 30-All to win the point, to win the match. That was the case, and that worked.

So I see nothing disrespectful of it. Of course if 100 other players will say that I did something wrong, maybe I'm going to think not to do it next time, but I don't think it's the case.

Q. I just wanted to know why you say it was such an intense match. You have known each other such a long time and played each other often. Why were you both so nervous?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Actually, I don't think we were nervous. Of course Sascha maybe a little bit with his double faults. I did just two, one on the breakpoint, but it's first game of the tournament, where you go and serve and you have a breakpoint, second serve, and I think I touched the top of the net if I'm not mistaken, so was really close to not making the double fault.

I was not nervous at all, but we had some unbelievable points from at least my point of view. Actually what is funny, when I watched other matches on TV, I felt like the camera maybe or something is not in the right place, why I'm saying it, because every match I watched I was feeling like they played bad.

So I think now that's what people think about our match also, but I can tell you being on the court that we played some unbelievable tennis in the first set, of course not counting the double faults, but there were some crazy intense points. And as I say, physically, not mentally, it was one of the most intense matches of my career, more sets than matches.

Q. One thing I was impressed with today was your defense. Would you say you won more points by playing great defense today and that might help you against Novak in your next match?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I'm looking forward to match with Novak, because I think in these conditions we have here we can have a lot of long rallies. We are both going to run well. I like to play against Novak. We have tough matches, you know, I think. Looking forward to it.

Yet, as I say, no, it's very strange because when we are practicing on center court, I was practicing with Dominic, with Rublev, it felt really fast and the serve was going fast, so there were not so many rallies.

And today I felt like even the many, many of my good shots or his good shots they were like so easy to reach. That's why I was good in defense. I was all over the court just because I had the opportunity. Felt really slow the conditions today, so, yeah, that's why I could be good in defense and that helped me of course to win the match.