AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 17, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. Rublev

7-5, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Impressive performance; was this your best match of the tournament so far?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Definitely. I mean, Andrey I think at this moment was on fire, starting already last year, so he was definitely one of the -- for me one of the favorites to go far in this tournament. He was in quarters already three times, I think, before this one, so this was the fourth time, so for sure he wanted badly to be in the semis.

To win this match in three sets, especially how physical it was, I mean, was amazing level from me, and I'm really happy about it.

Q. Obviously they haven't played yet, but can you give us your assessment both of where you see Rafa and where you see Stefanos right now in the tournament? Obviously Rafa had the issue with his back, and Stefanos is feeling seemingly strong. What's your sense of each of them?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: To be honest, two amazing players. I think both of them are always favored in the tournaments they are in. I mean, actually this Grand Slam, except for Aslan's match with Grigor were all of the top eight seeds who are in the quarters, so really strong. I think anybody can win the tournament out of the guys who are in quarters. So not much to say.

Rafa has 20 Grand Slams, amazing player. I beat him only one time and he was serving for the match, though I lost one time where I should have won, so it's maybe a little bit close.

But Stefanos is an amazing player, big serve, great volley. Tough to play. I think he's improving physically because maybe two years ago could say, yeah, out of five sets it's maybe not bad to play him. I don't think it's the case right now. Going to for sure enjoy the match this evening and get ready for whoever wins.

Q. Rafa looks fine to you? Do you see any difference in how he's playing?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: For sure not. After, I don't know, if somebody pushes him to a five-hour match what's going to happen, but he's one of the greatest fighters in the history of sport, so I think if he comes out on the court, even if he has pain, nobody will see it.

Q. Andrey has been here before, and he looked devastated. Given you've been in this position before, how long after the match are you entitled to go back to him and what do you generally tell him after the match?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, we won't discuss the match unless he will want to at one moment, but I don't think because we are just good friends outside the court, so I don't see any sense in coming back to this match. Again, unless he wants to for any reasons.

But for sure, when you lose a match you are disappointed, but tennis is life, he knows it, so I think we can even talk right now if he would be next to me. Just for sure it's a bit disappointing when you lose a Grand Slam quarterfinal and you need some time. Everybody different time; somebody one week, somebody one day, somebody 10 minutes, to just get through it.

Q. I didn't mean talking about the match. Just to clarify, do you wait for him to text you and say, hey, let's go for a drink?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, he's got to leave probably tomorrow, so I'd go for a drink, especially it's lockdown still here. But I don't think, at least for me, there is no problem. I don't think there is a problem for him. Like if we would want to go dinner out tonight, I think we could.

Q. How tough was it out there today with the conditions and the heat? Did I understand that you were cramping, as well?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, both of us were. We had some unbelievable rallies. I mean, I think the match was high quality. It's the first time to be honest I saw Andrey that tired, so good from my side because he's practicing with his coach, I think, five hours per day nonstop, never tired. We always laugh about him, that he's like a battery, like Duracell or something. I actually managed to get him tired.

It was the first really hot day. We were playing 3:00 p.m., so it was not easy physically, but as I say, I was cramping a little bit at the end, but seeing the shape Andrey was, and he's one of the most physical guys on tour, it's just normal.

Q. Novak spoke yesterday about maybe in the future playing a lot of tournaments in one country so you don't have to quarantine and travel and spend a lot of time in hotel rooms. Do you think that's a good idea?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it's not a bad idea. To be honest I'm not in the player council or of course I'm not a tournament director or something to speak more precisely why it can happen or it cannot happen. I don't know, if somebody manages to do it, it's going to be great. As I say, I don't know which structure it should have, but for sure, especially at this moment, this exact moment, many countries start to make more restrictions, so it starts to get a little bit tougher.

Let's see how the next tournaments go, so next tournaments are Rotterdam, Marseilles, Singapore, Dubai, Doha, stuff like this. Let's see how they go, to know more if we have to change something or not. It's tough to say. I would say it's definitely a good idea if somebody manages to do it, but I don't know the reasons why it should happen or it cannot happen.

Q. I just wanted to ask you, you said the match was physical. It was, obviously; it was a very high level. But I wanted to know whether this 14-day quarantine in any way affected the condition and made it more physical than it appeared for you guys.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's tough to say being so far actually from quarantine already because it finished two weeks ago -- no, two and a half weeks ago. So it might have an effect. At the same time we were both lucky we were not in hard quarantine. If you had a hard quarantine, that's where, yeah, for sure it's tough to play. I don't think we would play in quarters, both of us. I think we'd lose before, especially out of five sets.

As we see, some guys getting injured. We will never know exactly if it's because of this or not, but for sure the only bad thing about quarantine that we had is that we couldn't practice as much as we wanted to. We could practice, but for some time, and it's simple that somebody -- for somebody it's enough, for somebody it's not enough. Can somebody get injured because it was not enough? For sure. But I don't think today was the case that we were both cramping or tired because of the quarantine.

Q. You said on the court that you were trying to hide that you were cramped from people seeing. Why is it important for you that he didn't see that you were cramping? And also, what did you kind of take from seeing him suffering, given that he's so fit?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: For sure I tried not to show him because it was 5-2 double break. He sees me struggling a little bit, that's where he's going to fight, like everybody fights until the last point, but when you see your opponent struggle, it's tough to fight because you know that you just need to make this one, two balls, who knows, he's going to fall down and retire. We never know. So for sure I didn't want to show him that I'm struggling. I wanted to look like I'm as easy as possible so he struggles even more.

And for sure, yeah, when I saw him struggling, the only thing I thought, okay, I'm not the only one, it's tough for both of us. I need to win in these tough conditions for both of us.

Q. I was just wondering, what does it feel like to win so many matches in a row and almost be in a zone in that you can potentially problem solve on the court, obviously see your opponent get frustrated? What's that feeling like where you think you can achieve anything?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: To be honest, it's a good feeling. I have not much to add. The best feeling is when you win matches, so the more you win, the more you win in a row, the more it's better as a feeling. I don't have the exact word even to describe this. I'm happy about my level in all the matches that I won, that I've played for sure. Some matches I could say I could do this better, this better. But for me the momentum, the confidence means a big part. I think you can see that once I lose it, I start to make more unforced errors and that's where my game can be a little weaker.

So I'm really happy that I managed to keep this momentum going so far, and it feels great. Hopefully I can continue it for at least two matches.