US OPEN

September 1, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/D. Koepfer

6-4, 6-1, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Could you tell us a little bit about the match, how you thought you played? A little bit about a successful week No. 1.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think it was a great match from my side. I'm really happy. The conditions were a bit slower, quite cold indoors with the roof closed.

It was tough to make some crazy winners or some crazy shots. That's why I saw after the match statistics that both of us, we didn't do a lot of winners. I had to stay super consistent. I knew it from the beginning of the match, because two years ago when I played him was a tight one. So I knew that from the beginning of the match, I have to, you know, keep my level high, and that's what I managed to do. That's how I won.

So really happy with my level today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. A few minutes ago Vika Azarenka was in this room, and she said that she found it a bit bizarre that fans have to show proof of vaccination and players don't have a similar rule. What are your thoughts about this discrepancy?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough to answer on this question. I think everybody can has his own opinion. Yeah, I don't have an answer to this question, honestly.

I understand why they did it to the fans. So far it has not been applied to the players. We as players, we can just follow the guidelines and the rules. That's all we can do. So if we're gonna have the same rule, we will need to find out how we cooperate with it.

Q. What discussions do you think the players should have about this going forward?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it's not for players to decide, because that's why we have governing bodies in tennis. Sometimes we might not be happy with them; sometimes we might be happy.

But it's still them who make the decisions. It's definitely not players. Otherwise many things could be different in a good or a bad way. So we are just, you know, hard workers who do their job on the tennis court.

Q. (Question about psychologist.)

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I have been working with her for like three years. Nothing new from this side.

Q. But having to travel on-site, I have noticed...

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: She's together with my coach, so like together, so that's why she followed last year in many tournaments. But again, that's why she's here, yeah.

Q. On a little bit of a lighter note, you expressed your interest in movies. Talk about your interest in movies.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I definitely like to watch movies. That's just sometimes relaxing, sometimes interesting, sometimes, how do you call it in English, you can learn things from it. Actually finding out my wife is reading Matthew McConaughey biography right now, and she's showing me some things from it, which looks super interesting, so maybe I'm gonna read it one day.

I can watch any movie. I watched a lot of old ones, a lot of classic ones, if we can say like this. I also like new movies coming out. I can literally watch almost any genre.

So, yeah, just like movies. Yeah, that's it (smiling).

Q. Are there two or three that come to mind as favorite?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would always say my favorite is "Catch Me If You Can," because I really like the relaxing part of it, like I watched it maybe five, six times in my life. And I don't know, it makes me just feel good watching this movie. DiCaprio, Hanks, one of the best actors in the history.

Which one else? Maybe something that I watched not that long ago. I didn't watch a lot of movies lately. Let's keep it on this one.

Q. Here in America we love our cars and road trips. You had a road trip after Washington a few years back.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah.

Q. Just talk about what happened. Did it impact your career? What were the things that occurred?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it's actually funny, because we were passing New York, not of course inside New York but we were on the highway, and we saw Manhattan, there's all these tall buildings on the side, and we were going to Montreal. Yeah, it was a crazy story. There were no tickets. I guess I was not still -- I still was not sure if I played quallies there or main draw.

So, yeah, we decided in the morning -- actually, it's more a crazy story for my coach, because he came the day before to Washington. So he was super jet lagged and he made it all the way, I don't know why, I could drive also, but he made it all the way. In the end it was not easy for him.

Yeah, crazy memories, crazy story. Yeah, I remember we had this talk on the way back, which I don't want to say changed my life, because I don't like this expression. They are too big for me, I think. But of course small details can change the path of your career, and just fond memories. I'm sure he remembers it also.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about the court speed. You mentioned it was cooler conditions today. What's the surface like this year? Some players have been talking about how fast it is.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, first of all, it's tough to say when I played both of my matches on center court, and center court, especially in Grand Slam because it's that huge, is different. It's normal. The surface they are going to put it the same; just the conditions gonna be different. So center court is always slower.

Australia is pretty fast as a surface, especially I remember playing first Australian Opens, you play on the outside courts, almost feels two times faster than grass courts in Wimbledon. But then you play on Rod Laver Arena and you actually have a lot of rallies. It's tough to get the ball past your opponent and stuff like this.

So I practiced on the practice courts, and they are super fast. It's like many, many times you take the ball late. Center is a bit slower conditions, not the surface itself but it's pretty fast. The serve goes fast, it slides in the court.

I like it. I like that we have different hard courts on tour, because some tournaments it's really, really slow. Some tournaments, as here, is quite fast. I think, yeah, it's good for everybody, I would say.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about the initiative at the US Open today which is Pride Day. Obviously there have been a lot of openly gay players on the WTA Tour for years, but that's not been the case on the ATP Tour. I'm just wondering, as someone who has been on the tour for a few years now whether you have a sense of why that is, whether you think the tour would be a safe and receptive place for someone to come out, and what more needs to be done?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I honestly think from my side, of course, you never know what's true, but from my side, I think everybody would be super open if somebody would come out on the ATP Tour.

The other question is: Is there? Are there any gays on the ATP Tour? Again, until somebody comes out, you cannot know unless you're his best friend and you know what he goes through.

I think it's great from US Open this initiative. I think ATP honestly is doing a good job also especially internally trying to, yeah, to provide info and to just make sure that if anybody wants to come out, he's gonna feel safe and secure.

That's all I have to say. Again, in my opinion, it's gonna be just, what's the word, like all the players would be happy for the guy if he does it. That's all I can say, yeah.