LAVER CUP

September 25, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Thomas Enqvist

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/D. Shapovalov

6-4, 6-0

Team Europe - 9

Team World - 1

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. You looked extremely comfortable out there tonight. How did it feel to make your Laver Cup debut?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it felt comfortable. I was a bit stressed before the match, because always tougher to play for somebody in a way, because five guys won singles before me. That's some pressure to not be the first one to lose a singles match.

Was a bit stressed. Also, I didn't play for some time after US Open, so didn't know where my game would be, 100%. Was at the top, so I'm really happy about it and really happy to bring two points for the team, because that's the most important here.

THE MODERATOR: Thomas, can you put into words Daniil's performance tonight?

VICE-CAPTAIN THOMAS ENQVIST: US Open champion, no? An incredible performance, I have to say. Shapo is a very difficult player, a good indoor player. He also had played the match before. Was Daniil's first match. It's not easy.

Extremely impressive. Looks like he enjoys to play tennis at the moment, so it was a fantastic match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You guys are out to a 9-1 advantage now. Wonder if you can talk about this team a little bit. It really feels like an all-star team, all you guys in the top 10 together. We hear a lot about the Big 3. Do you feel like this is part of a new generation coming up together that's going to do great things?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: 100%. We are all so young. Actually, I just thought about it, but I might be the oldest in the team. I don't know Matteo's birthday. That's crazy that I'm the oldest in the team. Just unbelievable.

I think that's great, because if we talk about Laver Cup, we can be there for next ten years if we remain the same ranking. Yeah, this competition is about to win for the Continent. Right now it's 3-0 for Team Europe. Want to make it 4-0.

If I'm gonna play it again, no matter how many times, I will always want Team Europe to win and hopefully going to be 30-0 even if it's probably impossible.

Q. Daniil, you were saying on court to Jim that you hadn't picked up racquets for so many days and you were having the break and all that. Were you feeling at all a little bit anxious playing your first match since the US Open? Were there a few nerves? Generally, how did you feel? Besides playing so well.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: 100%. First of all, every first round you have more nerves than, I don't know, first round of a slam. Going to be tougher opponent first round. But you're going to have less nerves, because you know where your game is at. You know what you have to do. If he plays good, well, he beats you, congrats.

Here, it was the first match on this court for me. On the practice I was playing pretty good, which I was surprised by, because usually when I don't take a racquet for some days, I really lose it really fast.

Yeah, but the confidence, you know, winning a Grand Slam of course helps. I think that's what kept me going today, because there were a few moments in the first set where I was kind of not sure what I was doing. I remember the first breakpoint, I give him an easy shot, and you are like doubting a little bit. Could have played better. He won the game. Then everything went together.

Only thing I was saying to myself, Just believe in yourself, you're playing great, and just put pressure on him.

Q. On those days where you don't pick up a racquet, do you do anything at all? That time that you had on holiday after the Open, were you still working out to some degree? What was the intensity? If you didn't do anything, when did you really start picking up things?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I have done two gym sessions, talking to my team. I had to do three but I skipped one, if we can say like this.

Usually that's what I do. Even before the preseason, to not lose everything straightaway, I try to do once every two, three days, just a little bit of gym to stay in shape, because that's important. If you like really lay on the bed for nine days, well, you're not going to be good for some time.

So that's what I did. I did play with one guy in Miami a little bit, but I was a little bit not Shapo's level, let's say like this. Yeah, first time was Wednesday. Physically I was feeling okay, and that's the most important thing, because, yeah, that was the key.

Q. You don't strike me as somebody who is that surprised by your victory in New York at the Open. Almost like you saw it coming all along. Am I right in saying that, that you didn't really surprise yourself, because you knew it was eventually going to happen?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Not really, no. In tennis you can never know. That's the toughest feeling to lose a final of a slam, because you're, like, damn, there are so many good guys. Novak is always there, Rafa is always there. Am I going to have a chance to win it again? Probably it's different when you have one already or even more. You're more confident in yourself when you have zero slams. That's tough, you know. You have a lot of titles.

But every time you come in a slam, especially me, on grass or clay, I was not amazing so far. So I kind of have two Grand Slams to show my level.

But I also, I have an easy answer, I just try to do my best all the time. That's it. If my best is to win US Open, it's perfect. If my best to lose first round, well, I did my best.

Q. Obviously you could play anyone from Team World, and I'm just wondering, how does that preparation process look before the tournament or even yesterday, and how does that preparation process look like for you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: As I say, Wednesday, as soon as I came, I tried to practice as much as possible, because when it's a team competition you don't have the court for five hours. I think I hit with Rublev one hour. And then with Sascha we had one hour, 30. Next day I had one hour with Sascha again and one hour with Matteo.

Tried to use every opportunity to hit some balls to get back into the rhythm. Straightaway was not feeling not bad. Then when the matches started, just hit 45 minutes yesterday on the arena, tried to work on the small things, like serve, for example, was serving great today. Yeah, just tried to prepare as much as possible for the first match.

Again, yeah, I could prepare better if I would have played on Monday after the US Open victory, but I guess there are not many people in the world who would be able to do it.

Q. What clicked for you at 3-4 in the first set? Was it just you getting comfortable playing again after a while off, or did you pick up on something that Denis was doing that you had to adjust to?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Altogether he started pretty well, was going to the net. When you play your first match in few times, few days, passing shot is a tough shot I think to make, because you really have a small margin to pass a guy.

He was surprising with me with some shots. I needed to adapt. Also the first break with new balls, so I could go a little bit faster and he didn't have time to prepare for his big shots, helped me to gain confidence and to feel like, okay, that's the moment where I can completely close the match, and that's what happened, so I'm really happy about it.

Q. It's probably the most talked-about wedding anniversary present of recent times. You were saying that when Dasha was going to decide where to put it and all this, has that decision been made? Is it going to Moscow, going to Monte-Carlo? Where is she deciding to place the US Open trophy?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: All my cups are in Monte-Carlo, because that's where we live. Yeah, have pretty a lot. So we have to have a big, I don't know how it's called in English, but the thing where you put books usually, I think bookshelf. So, yeah, we use it for cups.

Hopefully one day we're gonna need a second one or a third one. My parents have few cups, actually a big one from Sydney, that's probably the biggest one in terms of the size. So, yeah, it's going to Monte-Carlo, for sure.

Q. If you can tell us the main differences that you can see on court between the surface of the court here at the Laver Cup and the one at the US Open that you played recently and won the trophy, if you can share that.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, to be honest, completely different. First of all, indoors, outdoors, I feel like indoors is (indiscernible) many times, and I think here also, I don't know how to explain it, but it's on wood, so there is a wood underneath the surface, and you will never see it on the outdoor courts.

So the feeling is completely different. I want to say I prefer outdoors normally, but I have some really big titles indoors also.

The funny thing is usually indoors is slower in the point, but the serve indoors goes faster, just because of the air. I think probably the air is stopping the ball less. And here it's also, here it's actually quite slow, good for us, good for Team Europe. I don't know who was making the decision to put the court, but I think Team World with their players, they would have loved a faster court.

Only thing is that it's really low, and that's actually surprising, because usually when it's slow, it's bouncing high. Here's it's really low, so first few days I was feeling like on grass, my glutes were hurting, low back was hurting. Yeah, felt good today.