NITTO ATP FINALS

November 14, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Pala Alpitour, Torino

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/H. Hurkacz

6-7, 6-3, 6-4

Q. You won the US Open in pretty quick conditions, you won Paris in pretty slow conditions, and here in Turin it seems like it's faster again. Which would you say you're better at, which are you enjoying the most?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough to say. I definitely enjoy hardcourts, that's the only thing I can say. I think I prefer fast conditions, but here it's probably the fastest I have ever faced on the ATP Tour. Challenger you can play on carpet sometimes which is fast and different, but here I don't think it's the surface itself because, to be honest, surface probably is exactly the same as in London.

I think it's a combination of air, which is really dry here and I think the ball goes very fast through the air, the balls itself, which are quite fast balls, and the court, which, I mean, we saw it in the match, I was barely under pressure on my serve against a great returner. And same for me, I had just two games where I had break points, first set was zero break. What was it, like 35 minutes to get to tiebreak, so super fast.

I wonder to see the other matches, the other three matches to see how they cope up with the speed because, again, for me and Hubie it was like just who makes one good shot in the point, I wonder if it's going to be the same for other guys and, yeah, sometimes during the tournament you get more used to it and that's where you have more points and stuff.

Q. This is probably, I would think, the first time you're defending one of the really big events, let's call it a Big 5 after the four majors and then you've got this one. Did it feel any different starting a title defense for this sort of a tournament compared to some others?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's actually tough to say because, for example, as soon as you asked me I tried to remember which big tournaments I won and I thought, okay, I won Shanghai in Cincinnati out of Masters 1000. And then next year Cincinnati was in New York, which is not the same, and Shanghai didn't take place.

And so here it's kind of the same where I do know I won London last year, it was still Nitto ATP finals, but we're different place, like different hotel, different venue, everything is so different.

So I want to feel myself as the defending champ, but I don't. I feel like there is going to be new winner here in Turin and, yeah, that's exactly what I feel, because I remember when I was in the arena you pass all the winners and it always say Sydney, Shanghai, whatever, and then there was London which was for long time, and you see all the winners.

And so here I actually didn't see this anywhere, but it would be the same, it would be London and then it would be like Torino 2021 and so it's going to be like a new story.

So I definitely didn't feel any pressure and I will be only happy if a lot of people consider myself as defending champ.

Q. I heard you in your interview with Tennis TV saying that you wouldn't even be in the top 50 in a hundred meter sprint and I'm curious who do you think would win from the players on Tour? Who would win a hundred meter dash?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, tough for me to talk about other players, I'm going to try, but it's the same about me, definitely, other players who's going to see me run on the court they're going to put me in there.

But as I say, I know myself, I was doing it when I was younger, you do the tests in the Federation or whatever and I was never good. Like I didn't have good coordination to have a good, fast start and to follow my pace on the hundred meters because it's so different to what we're doing on the court, the movement.

If I need to think fast, so, for example, I want to put de Minaur out there, but I don't know if he has the same problems or no, but I would say de Minaur, because he is super fast. I'm sure Gael Monfils, it's impossible to hit winners against him, he's so explosive, so I think this explosive power would make him, I would put him on No. 1 out of tennis players. Let me think about one more.

Because, for example, I'm not sure Novak would be good in hundred meters, but maybe I'm mistaken, you should ask him. Who can it be? Somebody who runs good for dropshots maybe. I have no idea. I picked the two, it's enough.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the hitting partner Jerome Kym, I don't know, did you spar with him at the tournament this week?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: He warmed me up today.

Q. Because I spoke to him and I want to know, what did you make of him in general and can you imagine that kind of experience, being around the top-8 players when he's still kind of a junior and stuff?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I hope he enjoys it, because me, tough to say, I was one time when I was young, I was like 21, so I received the Tecnifibre prize in London in the arena and I didn't know anybody of the top 8, I was not sparring there, but I was still, we managed to, I managed to get, to be in this kind of VIP zone where you can see them from a little bit from behind.

And it was cool, it was cool experience, I saw a lot of like soccer players, somebody took some photos, it was cool.

I actually, funny story, but I didn't recognize him until he put a photo on his Instagram because then that's when I saw the name and I was like, Damn, I remember him, he beat, he was 15 years old and he beat us in doubles in Davis Cup and he was one of the, I guess, youngest players to do it or whatever. And actually, I mean, he grows up, so he was 15, now he's 18, I completely didn't recognize him. If I see him I'm going to tell him about it.

Yeah, I saw that he was pretty up in the junior ranking, never means that you're going to be for sure in the top, but it gives you a chance, let's see how he does.