NITTO ATP FINALS

November 21, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Pala Alpitour, Torino

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/D. Medvedev

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What happened to your serve today? You just couldn't get it to click. At the same time certainly Sascha played a tremendous match.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think on this court serve is really important. It was working pretty well. Actually felt like yesterday I could have served better already. Was only three aces. I didn't feel amazing.

Tough to say. Maybe some tiredness of the body. Maybe just mentally was not a hundred percent. Not that I didn't want to be. But, yeah, definitely something was missing. I don't have the answer to be honest what.

It made a difference. Even when it was in, was not really going on the line, didn't have this spark, if we can say like this, on it. Wasn't enough. Sascha is a great player to be able to break me two times, which actually sometimes is in a way not too bad. When you play in a Masters final on a fast surface, somebody serving like Sascha, it's enough to win the match.

For me, can talk about many things, but the serve was definitely the key today, and he was better at it.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the psychology of facing the same player like twice in one week, three times in less than three weeks. What is that like?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think at our level it's even interesting because, of course, we're all going to try to do something different, to prepare differently, to play differently. I felt that he was doing something differently. Maybe I lost the first break of serve because of this.

At the same time, again, if you make aces, in a way you're in the match. I tried to change up things I have been doing. I felt that it was working good, but I just couldn't return his serve few times. It was enough for him, again, to win the match.

Yeah, talking about the psychology, I don't know, it's not that tough for me. It's interesting for me. Every time you know that he's going to try to do something new, you're going to have to be prepared for it. Same for them. Okay, he won me this time, next time I'm going to try to be better, try to do something better than him and win.

Yeah, I like it.

Q. Novak Djokovic is still No. 1, you're No. 2, Roger Federer is missing probably for a long time, Alexander Zverev won this tournament twice now, never beat a top-10 player in a Grand Slam tournament. Where is tennis standing for 2022 with the young players?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's tough to say because it's tough when you talk about yourself. I want to say I'm the best one in the world, watch me play, but no, I'm not like this.

I think what is important to know - and my coach is laughing a little bit about this - he's saying, Yeah, well, when there was Borg and McEnroe, when they were close, finished their career, everybody was like, Tennis is over, we won't ever have any great players, it's finished.

We did have some, Sampras, Agassi, they were at the top. Sampras retired, Okay, tennis is over. Then we had Novak, Roger and Rafa. If you asked just before they came, everybody would say, Well, tennis will not be interesting anymore.

It's the same here. Tennis is a great sport, so I don't see why our generation would miss on something. Of course, maybe we don't do 20 Grand Slams, yet nobody did before Roger, Rafa and Novak, so they were also worse than them, if we can say like this. It's definitely not going to be a shame.

I can only talk for myself. I will try to do my best, try to win more titles, try to be in the finals of big tournaments. Yeah, not much more to add.

Q. When you see Sascha, the way he played yesterday and today, really the entire week, is it surprising that he hasn't won a Grand Slam title at all? How long do you think it will be before he does?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, there are a lot of great players who doesn't have a Grand Slam title, if you talk about ex-players or players right now. Stefanos was up 2-0 against Novak in the Roland Garros final, played exceptional clay court season. He could have it, as well. Sascha was serving for the match in US Open.

It's tough to say. You never know where your career is going to go. Some players start to play worse, somebody gets injured, somebody wins 20 Grand Slams. It's the same about Sascha.

He is a great player that is capable of beating anybody. He definitely can win a Grand Slam because it's just obvious. But he's not the only one. That's where it gets tough. He was in the semis in US Open, lost in five sets. Who knows, maybe he would be in the final, he would beat me.

Again, it's just a matter of every tournament is a different scenario, different surface. You need to win seven matches to be a Grand Slam champion. Is he capable? Yes. Is he going to do it? We never know.