NATIONAL BANK OPEN

August 14, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/J. Isner

6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A great match today. Might not have been what you were expecting coming in. Maybe you were expecting him to serve more than four aces. Walk us through the match and how you saw it out there.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I definitely was expecting him to serve a lot of aces. I definitely was expecting a tough life on the return. I need to be honest: I think something was bothering him. I don't know. I didn't ask him. So I don't know if it's true or not, or maybe it's the conditions.

But I knew that, well, I need to do the match from my side. I felt like I could return, so that's what I was trying to do in the rally. I was just trying to keep pressure on him all the time.

Was serving pretty big also, so was happy with my level of the game, happy with the result, that's for sure. Yeah, happy to be in the final.

Q. When you had your match against Hurkacz, which was obviously long, a very tough match, in Masters 1000s when you are playing every day by the end of the week, is it obviously nice to get a match like this, not running as much going into a final?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course. It's always nice to play fast matches. Keeps your body healthy, I would say.

I think with experience and the amount of matches I played, like when I just came on tour, so when I was maybe 21, one match like yesterday could break down the tournament. That's why I started working much more on the practice court and on my physical condition.

So now the match like yesterday, I need to be honest, I was 100% fresh today. Was feeling like I could do another match like this. Slams also help. The further you go in slams, the more these three-set matches feel like nothing, because, well, in slams you need to win three sets to win the match. Sometimes it's going to be on two tiebreakers or whatever, or maybe it's going to go to four or five.

But still, the match like today, definitely going to be 100% ready for tomorrow if I need to run for three hours.

Q. A question about the approach to the US Open. I'm wondering, do you even think at all that the US Open is coming up as you get more experience and knowing your body and knowing the way you want to play there, or for you is it better just to forget about it all and focus on trying to get the title here?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Of course I think about US Open in a way, but I'm still, I feel like I'm still young, still feeling good physically, don't have any, let's call it like this, chronicle [sic] problems or issues with my body. So I know that I play good when I'm in shape and I'm winning matches.

So I think the best preparation for me coming to US Open is try to win as many matches as possible but of course not playing the week before the Open itself. That's the only thing I'm thinking about right now. So the first thing is to try to win the match tomorrow.

Again, the more matches I win here and in Cincy, the better I'm going to feel for US Open.

Q. Do you ever get tired during this course of a season and feel like you need to take some time off? And then right now, do you feel pretty fresh, like you can go for another month and you're in a good spot?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a tough question, because many times you're going to feel this tiredness when you're actually losing matches first, second rounds. You're going to start feeling, Wow, I'm exhausted, I'm done.

This season has been tough because a lot of circumstances, COVID protocols and everything. Altogether, it makes it tough for the body and the head. When I say when I came to Olympics after Roland Garros, I was like maybe (indiscernible), so coming to Olympics I didn't feel fresh, I didn't feel fresh there. I thought, okay, I just need, you know, to stay focused. After US Open I'm going to go on vacation.

Well, now I'm feeling 100% fresh. When you're winning matches, you're in the final, you just won 6-2, 6-2 in the semis, you feel great. It's all about this. Of course, you need to work with your team and know when your body needs to rest, to not get injured, because that's the most important.

Q. Great confidence and great execution today. I was just wondering, when did you mentally win this match? Was it maybe in the shower this morning or on the way to the tennis courts?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, not at all. As I say, I think his serve was not as big as it can be today. Of course when you get the break in the second set, you know it's never over until the last point, but you feel like, Okay, I made a big step to try to close the match.

Actually, next game he had deuce, I made maybe two aces or something like. That's another big step. Then when you make two breaks, it's very rare that you're going to lose the match. It still can happen, so I need to stay focus. That's what I did and had to save a breakpoint last game.

To be honest, the match is never over, again, until the last point. So some matches people getting injured just before the end of the match. Actually had some crazy matches this year, I remember two, I'm not going to say them, crazy two matches where a lot of match points saved and stuff like this. So, yeah, I won it when he hit the second return serve out.

Q. Of the top 10, you are one of the four players who has played the most tournaments in the year, and after Toronto you will go to Cincinnati and US Open. I wanted to know, with the season you had, how are you physically? If your body is asking you for a break?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, actually I didn't know I played that many tournaments. Maybe other top-10 players didn't play enough, because I try to select it quite wisely. Maybe Rotterdam was tough after Australian, but I like the tournament so I wanted to play it. Then I was playing only Masters 1000 on clay courts, especially with COVID.

I mean, yeah, you know, I work with my team to select the plan, depending on how I feel mentally, physically. Of course a big priority is Masters and Grand Slams, not gonna hide it, because that's where all the points, all the money, all the, even if we can say like this, fame is.

Yeah, let's say like this: until my body explodes, it means we are making good decisions, we're trying to work really hard physically and really precisely in order to try to have my body ready for this number of tournaments. The only tough thing already I'm thinking is that I have my plan after US Open for few tournaments, and especially with Indian Wells, and it's a pity that Moscow and St. Petersburg are coming just before Paris Bercy, because I'm not going to be able to play 55 tournaments in a row, and it's going to be a tough decision for me at the end of year what I'm going to choose.

Q. You have spoken so much about your game and everything that's happened in the last week. Your press conferences are wildly entertaining. On social media everything you have said has kind of blown up a bit as well. Have you always been this outspoken, been so direct?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think on press conferences I never hide anything. If I feel like I should not say something or it's not appropriate to say it, just gonna get away from the question quite easily. If not, I don't see any reason to hide my personality, especially on press conferences.

On court it's different, because my goal is to win a match. So sometimes I can actually control or hide my emotions in order to win the match. Not in order to be loved or whatever. Never did anything for this.

Yeah, I like talking to you guys. They ask me these questions several times. When some players said they are tired of talking to press or whatever, I feel like it's part of the job. I don't know if I would have done it if it would not be part of the job, but I like it and I feel comfortable with it.

Q. I asked you earlier this week about what that run meant a couple years ago for you, but, you know, since making the final in Montreal, you have won three ATP Masters 1000s, made a couple Grand Slam finals. Just curious how you see how you have grown as a tennis player since a couple of years ago when you made the final in Canada?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's not only about growing, because when you say "growing," I definitely went higher in the rankings. I definitely captured some more titles, two finals of Grand Slams, also something I was trying to do. It's normal that with age by playing good tennis I managed to do it.

It's more about just trying to improve every day, and so I definitely changed as a tennis player. I don't want to say that I became 10 times better tennis player playing better forehand or backhand. I just know that that's how life is.

In my opinion, unless you improve -- no, actually let's call it like this. If you try to stay the same and try to stay on the same place, you're going to regress. I heard it from many champions and from many people in life, businessmen or whatever.

I follow this advice. I try to improve every day. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I get crazy on the court; sometimes not.

Again, that's what life is about. It's about emotions, about everyday new things, trying to learn new things. Definitely I am a different tennis player. Don't want to say a better one, but hopefully I am a better one.