ROLAND GARROS

June 9, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

S. TSITSIPAS/D. Medvedev

6-3, 7-6, 7-5

Q. Tough one tonight, but congrats on a very nice performance in Paris. I'm guessing you were maybe disappointed when you found out it was going to be a night match played without a crowd; is that safe to say?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, a hundred percent, and it's actually funny because just yesterday I started the third season of "Drive to Survive," and I think the first or second episode is called "Cash Is King," which I didn't know why is it called. So just before the pandemic -- like when the pandemic started, they were in Australia ready to race, and they asked Lewis Hamilton what he think about racing in the conditions the world was in right now, and he said, I don't know what we are doing here. And so they asked him, Why do you think they make you race? And he said, "Cash is King."

It was the same here. Our match was definitely the match of the day, so Roland Garros preferred Amazon to people. It's easy as that.

Actually I want to say that I think it's good when you have sponsors and everything because that's how we tennis players can make money, but actually we have more people this year in Roland Garros, we have Amazon, I don't know if they had it last year, and we get 15 percent less prize money. So the question is where is the Amazon money. So yeah. That's my answer to your question.

Q. Daniil, what is your sense of your progress here at Roland Garros and your sense of how much further you think you have to go, or are you right there and this was just a couple of games here and there and a couple of points here and there and you expect you'll be contending here, although Rafa seems to be tough to contend with these days?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it's tough to say because every time I don't win a tournament, it's kind of a disappointment. But before coming here, as I said, first time I came here it was Thursday or something, I was feeling good straight away, so I was like, I can do good results. But before coming here, if anybody would tell me I would be in quarters losing to Tsitsipas in a tough match, I would sign. I will not lie, I would sign, especially being 0-4 in the first rounds before.

So I think great tournament, great fight today. Was fighting until the last point.

If we talk about the last point that was tactically that I wanted to do this serve, it was not that I wanted to leave the court or anything. Got really, I feel like, unlucky in some important points, but that's tennis, especially on clay. For me it's tougher to get the break points done and stuff like this, and I felt that he was a bit better on clay today again.

Q. You just sort of alluded to it and it's a genuine question: Was the tactic at the end maybe if it works out, mentally it makes an adjustment, you get through a tiebreak and then things sort of shift a little bit?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It could. That's tennis. So the most amazing result maybe in the history of grass was when, I don't want to say names, but somebody was up 5-1, 40-Love and he lost the match, which is unbelievable. I was in the same position, which Rafa won.

Tennis is sometimes about a few points, so it's a big pity that I didn't manage to close it out on 6-5. I made a drop shot that he didn't even run to. It missed by some inches. I feel like yeah, that was the match. I was fighting, I was adjusting my tactics after the first set where he was definitely much better than me. He was up a break, I tried to fight back, and yeah, I mean, he won I feel like a great tennis match, and I have not much to say. Maybe a bit unlucky, but at the same time, again, we need to see what is going to be head-to-head when I'm 35 and he's 33 and then it's going to get interesting.

Right now every match is a new match. He's a great player. That's why he won.

Q. I've got to ask you a bit more about that last point. You said it was a tactic. You said it was time for a surprise and you thought it might give you a different look and catch him? What was your thinking behind it?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I was thinking about it during the whole match, like that maybe in the important point I could do it because my opinion that he was quite far back in the court, so that can always work. But I didn't see the opportunity before, and this one I felt that he was kind of on top of me, so I thought it's going to be a good choice to bring him surprise. I sometimes do it on practice. Usually guys are a bit surprised. They are coming to the low ball to slice, so that's why I went to the net.

But well, it didn't work out at all. He had an easy ball to finish. He made it. But again, as I say, it was tactical, and I won't say it was a mistake. It was something that I dared to do and just maybe next time I won't do it knowing that he's ready.

Q. When you two play each other, you and Stefanos, I think everybody talks about the Miami match that happened three years ago and gets excited that maybe this will be another sort of spicy moment because there aren't very many real rivalries with a lot of sort of tension maybe in tennis right now. I'm curious, do you think that when you play Stefanos? Do you feel there's some sort of history or edge to this matchup that you sense when you're on court or is that overrated at this point?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it could become, but especially because of the big three, tennis is considered as a super, super conservative sport, super intelligent. So we as young guys, we need to follow this because otherwise we get destroyed, by media, by people.

In other sports we can see these rivalries where people actually just to heat it up, maybe sometimes they don't even hate each other but they try to say some things to each other during the match or things like that. But tennis is not like this, so I don't think it's ever going to be between me and him again any sort of fight or anything. But yeah, I find it maybe a pity because it could be much funnier.

Q. What do you think made the difference today compared to a couple of the previous matches like the Australian Open? I know it was a different surface, et cetera, but if you were to put a finger on it, what do you think the difference was?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, to be honest, the biggest difference was the surface, but when I say this, I finally not say it in a way, oh, I cannot play on clay, mama mia or whatever. It's just that his shots were better on clay. He puts a lot of spin, so he plays close to the line. If on hard courts I can take these balls early and take time from him.

I tried to do it also today but then you can get small bad bounce; you're not going to be prepared so well.

I was even kind of surprised the first set. That's why it went so easy on his side because I didn't expect such great level from him, especially I felt like I played good guys like Bublik, Garin, Tommy Paul actually, that played good from baseline, and I felt that I was on top of them in the rallies so I felt I could continue doing this today like on the hard courts. It was not the case so I had to change. I had to go more aggressive.

I feel I've done a lot of good things today, but it was not enough to win, and that's unfortunate.