NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 13, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/H. Hurkacz

2-6, 7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Great match today. Just talk a little bit about it. Couple times it looked like super close, like going Hubi's way. He was playing super well the entire match. How did you get this one to go your way?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, definitely tough match. I feel like in Wimbledon I was much closer to win the match, especially the first day. I feel like I should have closed it in three sets. I remember a few points still.

But that's what tennis is about. Today he was definitely at least first two sets and even third one a little bit much closer to win it, to finally break me and probably he would hold his serve the way he was playing today.

But managed to keep it up. Yeah, it was a matter of few points. When you see the score and you didn't see the match straightaway, you say, Wow, what a score. Feels good to win such matches. You know, I think in ten years I'm gonna have maybe 50 matches like this lost, 50 matches like this won. You're going to need to try to win as many as possible. When you win them, it feels good.

Q. On the big points tonight, just in general, it seems like you don't get tight and try and play more conservative on the big points. Tonight, like yesterday, to set up match point you came to the net, after a nice backhand you came in today and got the volley to go, set up match point again. Almost like you go more aggressive. Is that your mindset on the big points?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It depends the moment. Depends the opponent. You know, I felt like Hubert today was actually playing really good also on important points. I was feeling like if I stay back he's going to make something crazy, special, the crowd going to go wild. So I need to try to prevent him from doing this.

We never know how it's going to go. I could have missed the volley, he could put the passing shot, because, yeah, I remember the point. But it didn't go like this, and it was 6-3 to me.

Of course, like everybody, I feel tight on important points. I try to hold my nerves. Sometimes to go for it is an easier solution, but, well, you need to be sure that you're not doing it to escape the stress. In a way, yes, but to also try to, yeah, to not just escape the stress but to actually do something good with it.

Yeah, you know, I think it's just experience playing a lot of tennis matches starting from juniors, because in juniors you can have crazy matches, and then everybody decides for himself what he wants to do in these moments. I have my thing where I just decide before the point what I'm gonna do.

Q. You just mentioned that in ten years you're going to have 50 matches like this one. The more you put yourself in this type of position and close out these types of matches, how important is it to have these sorts of experiences going forward in your future big matches at Grand Slams and other tournaments like that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: The more you win, the better. I remember actually when I was on this crazy summer streak when I was in final in Montreal, Cincinnati, whatever, I had some matches like this. I think in Shanghai, after Shanghai, in one moment I was, I don't want to lie, but a lot of tiebreaks won in a row. Then sometimes this year I was really bad in tiebreaks.

So it's something that it's a feeling that's something that you have at this moment, the flow, and it's very tough to explain. It's very tough to feel. It's where it's even tougher to get it.

But as you say, the more matches you win like this, the more confident you're gonna be next time. For example, talking about the match point, 6-5, he just made two amazing points to get it from 6-3 where you know it's always easier to finish it with a return, you're less tight. I'm, like, Okay, what do I do? I served an ace.

Sometimes it's not going to work like this. But the more times you do it, the more confident you are that you can do it. Yeah.

Q. Could you give us a few more details about your internal control during the match.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: As I say, it's experience. I don't think about it during the match too much, because I do feel like if in tight moments you're going to think too much, okay, what do I do to keep myself calm at this moment, you're actually going to get tight. That's the way I do it. I just go with the flow.

I feel like that's a good way to escape the stress, because the stress can make you do stupid decisions and can make you miss some balls.

So again, the way I do it is just think about what do I have to do next and not thinking about how to actually not get tight. But the only thing that was really tough today is to stay in the match, because he was much stronger in the beginning and I was pushed against the wall, so I knew I don't have any other choice than to just try to win it, and it happened.

Q. After the Wimbledon match, obviously it was a good match and it went his way. This one was an amazing match. This could be maybe a little bit of a rivalry starting. Hubert is such a nice guy, as you said at the end. What did you guys say to each other at the net? And do you see this becoming a rivalry?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, first of all, he apologized for slowing the play because somebody was with the flash, but I know how it is. If there is a flash in your eyes, you have to say stop because you're not able to return.

I don't see why he apologized, because I made an ace. Why do you apologize (smiling)? I understand if I would have missed the first serve or whatever.

He's probably one of the nicest guys on tour. Losing a match like this, I'm talking about myself, I would be probably really disappointed. I would say congrats to the guy but I'll probably not hug him or whatever, just to go in the locker room and cry there, not literally but kind of.

Yeah, he's a super nice guy. If he plays like this, and I hopefully can play good too, we're gonna meet in later stages of many tournaments. Of course I will be only happy, because again, great two matches where I felt like I had the edge on the first one and he could have had the edge here, but that's what tennis is about. It went down that way two times.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your returning position so deep in the court. We ran a bit of an analysis on that on the ATP site actually this week where you were the player who broke more times on hard courts than anybody else this year before the Olympics. What do you try to achieve by being so far back in the court? Is it to take big cuts, to put your opponent under pressure? It's more than just trying to get the ball back into play, obviously.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, actually I saw the article. I really liked it. I thought it was a really good article.

You know, I try to work on a lot of things on practices. Returning closer to the court, returning deeper in the court, returning middle position, so at least I feel like I know how to do everything.

I do feel like, I mean, I don't really return on the baseline like some players, because I know that's not my strongest part. Then it depends, it depends so much on conditions, balls you are playing with, opponent you are playing against.

For example, today against Hubert, there were a few times I wanted to go really far back and I felt like, no, he's giving me too much angle to play with, so I cannot even get to the ball. I felt like I need to be a little bit closer.

But actually, as you say in the article, yeah, sometimes I go far back because that's from where I can hit full power, and the guy's gonna be in trouble because he's gonna think that I'm so far back that he needs to actually go for some good shot and he's going to make a winner, but that's not the case.

Depends the opponent, depends the conditions, but, yeah, I do like to return far back.

Q. You touched on, if I may, what was going to be my follow-up question, whether or not the equation changes if you play a super-tall guy like an Isner or an Opelka because of the angles.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough to say. When I played Reilly, I feel like I like to return it really far back, because otherwise it's super tough to return. At the same time, it's obvious that if he starts making kicks and serve and volley, well, I'm not gonna have any chance by returning far back.

So I remember playing John was unbelievable match at ATP Cup, because I broke him like five times or six times. I don't know. It was unbelievable, which will probably not happen all the time I play against him, and I was actually returning quite close to the baseline, trying, you know, to take time from him.

So again, depends, I feel like the most it depends on is the country we are playing in, what I mean the country is the conditions, how humid it is, how dry, which balls, are they flying, are they heavy, because if the balls are heavy, returning far back, you're probably gonna hit the net.

Even tomorrow, there is chance I'm playing Isner, I have no idea right now where I'm gonna return, but I'm going to try to find it out during the match.

Q. Do you think it might be a little bit too late if you try to figure out during the match?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: With John, no, because of course before the match I'm going to try to see what do I think is the best, but when you're playing somebody like John, you're gonna get there, maybe you're gonna have three games where you don't touch the ball on his serve, and you're like, Okay, I need to change it up.

When I said trying to figure out is of course I'm going to have my plan before the match which I'm going to follow in the beginning, but if I see it doesn't work, then I need to maybe change. That's what I was talking about. Of course I have the plan before the match, yeah (smiling).