MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 5, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. Davidovich Fokina

4-6, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you manage today to turn it around, to make it on your side?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, to be honest, I mean, I feel like first set I should have won it also, but that's clay. You know, you have a lot of breakpoints. He played good. He made some winners. I lost my serve from not so many breakpoints, I think I saved one, and yeah, the serve was over so it was very frustrating.

A lot of matches on clay I lost like this before so I knew, okay, there is nothing to do else than continue playing, because I was playing not bad. I managed to actually, yeah, finish the important moments with some good shots, and that was the key to win the match.

Q. After this victory you love clay more and more?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Ah, no. I probably will say it even if I win Roland Garros, one moment probably when Rafa retires, maybe it will be just a little bit easier. I will still like other surfaces more, but it's only my opinion so I don't pretend to have the truthful opinion.

Q. A nonmatch question, if I could, please. When you were very young and you had stars in your eyes, you had to obviously sacrifice a lot of things when you were growing up, do you regret missing out on maybe some of the teenage years and younger years? If so, what did you miss out on do you feel that you would like to have done?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: To be completely honest with you, I think I missed out on much less things than some other tennis players, because till I was 18 maybe or 17 when, especially when you get in junior Grand Slams, that's where you see Rafa, Roger, Novak and you say, Okay, maybe I do actually have the chance to be this place one day.

Before this, you know, I didn't know that I would sacrifice my life to tennis like I did as I say later. So my mom was also for studying. She was kind of a little bit against tennis. So I went to university for one year, a really good one in Russia. I was going to school a lot, so I had a lot of friends.

I mean, I was going to cinema, playing PlayStation, so I don't think I missed on a lot of teenage life. Talking about a little bit later, I was always saying, until I was 21, if I'm not mistaken, I was not really paying too much attention to small details. So again, I could enjoy life because I just thought that it wouldn't affect my tennis.

So, yeah, now I can say that when I sacrificed my life to tennis when I was 21, I said, Okay, I'm going to go to bed early, I'm going to eat well. If I had a day off, I'm not gonna, I don't know, walk for 10 kilometers at the beach. I'm going to rest and prepare for the practice the next day.

That's when the results came, so I cannot regret it (smiling).

Q. You were just saying about you started to eat well and things like that. But even now, if you decide you want to eat something that is just absolutely disgustingly unhealthy, what would it be?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: What would it be? I mean, disgusting, I don't want something disgusting. I want something good.

Many times when I lose a match or when I finish a tournament, I take McDonald's. I like McDonald's because it's really good in Russia. It's much less good in USA and Europe, I don't know for which reasons so I many times regret taking it, but that's kind of a child dream. Many times if I lose a match, like when you are depression, I don't know, you take ice cream, yeah, I take McDonald's.

Q. Another bit of a random topic. I'm curious whether you would consider yourself superstitious at all? And why or why not?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: A little bit like every tennis player but not much. Like I always give this example, like I don't know which example of my superstition I can -- like let's say as an example I would clean the line on clay just before I serve and I would win again. Then I don't know for which reason, let's say I would forget to clean it before the next game, and I'm gonna understand it at Love-30 or something, I'm not going to be like, Oh, no, that's why now I cannot play anymore. No, I'm gonna play as I play.

So I have some things that put me in a good mood, but I feel like I'm not very superstitious. Just a little bit.

Q. You said "like all tennis players." Why do you think so many tennis players are superstitious?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think because we need a good rhythm to play good, and to have a good rhythm you need to have a routine. The routine may be considered as a superstition. So, for example, is it superstitious that I usually practice, of course if it's not a first match at 11:00, 3 hours 30 before? No, it's just to eat 2 hours 30 before.

But somebody is more superstitious and he's going to win his first ATP title eating 3 hours 30 before, he's going to say, Okay, all my life I'm going to eat 3:30 before the match.

So, yeah, we are all superstitious, somebody more, somebody less, but I think it's easy to see (indiscernible), actually.