ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 11, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you tell us how you feel getting into this sort of home tournament for you, with the setting this year, special setting? How is it?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Really happy to be here. I like the tournament. Played good once here. Can stay at home, which helps with all the bubbles and everything. Really lucky to be able to stay at home this week.

Yeah, just looking forward to my first match. Have a lot of space this year without the fans. It's very unfortunate this we won't have any fans. Now all the club is for us. It's definitely one of the most beautiful tournaments in the world right now.

Q. You had a great run at Monte-Carlo a couple of years ago. As you've joked about in the past, never have had that kind of success in Paris. I'm wondering for you, what made the difference a couple of years ago in Monte-Carlo? What do you think you need to do to win some matches at Roland Garros?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, first of all, just need to play good, need to feel better than I did last years. What I mean by that, on hard courts maybe some matches I cannot feel the ball that good or not feel good physically or mentally, but I can still win some matches because it's kind of automatic what I do there. Okay, play on the backhand of the guy, he's going to miss or something like that.

On clay I don't have this automatin [sic]. It's much harder for me to play, which I don't hide. I know I'm capable to play good, won some very good matches a few years ago. Even those that I lost, I played really good.

Yeah, Roland Garros I need to arrive at the best form possible. That's what I'm going to try to do this year. I'm normally only playing Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, trying to go for the big ones. Trying to work on my game on clay every day. Let's see if I am going to succeed. It's going to be very interesting.

Q. As you were mentioning about working on your game on clay, of course we've talked about the development of your game in the past couple of years, what do you see as the greatest challenges in that respect connecting your on-court game with the mental preparations for the clay season and so on?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, mentally I think for me the most important is going to be to know that some shots that maybe would be winners or which I would win the point on hard courts, it's definitely not the case on clay courts. You need to do maybe three good shots, like one of which would be enough on hard courts. That's tough sometimes for me to understand.

Also, of course, the quality of my ball after the bounce. If I play like on hard courts, it's not that amazing with my flat strokes. Working on putting some more spin, some more trajectory.

Yeah, all of this is tough because for 10, 9 months, I'm playing like I'm used to, then I have to change it for two months, still keeping the things that I do well also. Like you cannot change completely your game.

Not easy, but as I say, it's going to be interesting.

Q. I'd like to know, if you find yourself No. 2 seed on a clay tournament, while Rafael Nadal is No. 3, is it something that you find almost unbelievable, acceptable of course? Also I'd like to know about what do you think about Monfils? Hasn't won a match almost since we started to play tennis after the pandemic. Withdrew from Monte-Carlo, but still seeded. Those rankings sometimes create some doubts. What do you think about all this?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, actually didn't see that guy retired. I saw him today. I didn't know this. It's unfortunate. Of course pandemic made an impact on everybody differently. For him, I think he's saying this in the press, he had some problems to find motivation and stuff like this. But I like Gael really much. I hope he comes back stronger. I'm sure about it.

About the rankings, it's tough to say because people that are not able to travel maybe that much, especially talking about Australians, I would say, maybe at the time when the decision was made South Americans were not able to be able to travel around the world, stuff like this. I imagine somebody did, I don't know, semis of US Open from the country where he cannot go to US Open, and they take out his points.

Was a tough decision to make for ATP, but they made it. I think if you take hundred players, we cannot make hundred happy. We need to make maybe 80 or 70 happy. I think out of hundred, they made the best decision to make as most players as happy as possible.

Yeah, talking about Rafa, I mean, it's just funny because, well, I'm not the best clay court player. But I'm seeded higher than him in Monte-Carlo which he won maybe 10 times, maybe more, I'm not sure. Yeah, it's probably not going to mean anything during the tournament, but let's see.

Actually don't even know if he's in my part of the draw. In Novak's. That can make a huge semifinal if he's in Novak's part.

Second question, I'm sorry, I don't remember.

Q. I know the clay court season is only just starting. I wonder if I can ask a Wimbledon question. I'm asking some players, What is your favorite Wimbledon memory? Was it maybe your first match there meeting Stan?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, definitely. So far I haven't done anything amazing there, even though I like to play on grass. Beating Stan was unbelievable, on Centre Court, was my first match on such stage, to be honest.

Everything was amazing about this match. It's definitely my biggest memory so far in Wimbledon. Hopefully I can make something bigger to make this one second or third or even the further greatest memory.

Q. At the moment the popular Russian-born players in the rankings are representing Kazakhstan. From a Russian perspective, is that a shame that they're not representing Russia? Have you ever been approached by Kazakhstan when you were outside of the top hundred?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, definitely a lot of Russian natives playing for Kazakhstan, especially in tennis. Kazakhstan is a country that likes tennis, especially the big, famous people in the country. They like tennis, so they try to develop it.

I need to be honest. I think they are doing a good job to develop tennis in the country. They like tennis, they need to develop it. They found probably the easiest way because Russian Federation doesn't help juniors maybe that much till a certain point.

The other question is would they be able to help. Not sure because we don't have a slam or a Masters 1000 event for the Federation to get some big money.

It's definitely a shame from a Russian tennis player perspective that some of the great names, maybe also future names, are playing for Kazakhstan, not for Russia. But we still have a huge field in Russia at this moment. I think we're actually four people higher than first one who is Bublik for Kazakhstan.

Talking about myself, I would want to probably keep it private because, of course, when I was young, I could get approached from different people for different reasons. So I would have to tell much more about it, so I'm going to keep it private.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. I would like to know about your reaction to the change of dates for the French Open. Is it a good thing for you? Maybe there would be more fans. As a player you would have an extra week to prepare. Were you surprised?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yes, I was surprised. I'm a bit surprised because if we talk about rules, about the French Open, not the French Open itself, but the country and the government, what does it change if we do it a week later? We're talking about COVID here. I'm not sure it will change anything.

I must say it's a bit ridiculous. But not on the part of the French Federation or the government, it's just the general situation. When you look at that way, it gives you the feeling that if you postpone by one week, the COVID will disappear in one week. There are many rules. Sometimes there might have to be some exceptions.

As a player anyway, I prefer that because it will give me an extra week to prepare. I'm going to try to use the two weeks after Rome to really prepare well and have a good trip there. We'll see what they're going to do for the grass court season.

I'm not talking about me, but a player who is going to the quarterfinals in the French Open will be in a bad situation for the grass court season. In that case he will only be able to play Wimbledon. It's never easy to play only one tournament in the grass court season.

Q. Can you tell us what you think about clay? Is it one of your favorite surfaces? In the French Open you lost four times first round in four appearances. Do you like the surface or is it the worst surface for you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I'm not hiding this, I don't like clay. I'm not going to South America, although I like to travel. I would like to go there once in my life, of course. But I'm not going to go there instead of Rotterdam, Marseille or Dubai. I'm not going to play on clay in South America during that time.

But especially after what happened two years ago, I know I can play well on this court. Every time I practice on clay, after when I play my match, I try to do my best, but it's difficult for me. I hope I'm going to have good results this year after the good work I've been doing.

But honestly, there's nothing I like on clay. There's always bad bounces, you're dirty after playing. I really don't enjoy playing on clay.