DAVIS CUP FINALS

November 27, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Team Russia

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/E. Gomez

6-0, 6-2

Russia - 2

Ecuador - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That looked very easy from where we were sitting. What was it like for you? How are the conditions? How are you finding it playing in the high altitude?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, definitely happy about my level. Didn't have too many mistakes. I mean, solid match. I think Emilio was pretty tired from yesterday. When you're playing a lot of ATP tournaments you get used sometimes finishing around midnight. I remember myself first maybe five times or even more when I had matches to play next day, I was destroyed. Many times I was not able to play my best. I think that's what happened a little bit.

Finished late yesterday. He played amazing match.

Today I managed to keep him under my elbow, if we can say like this. I managed to see where he's going, what should I do next. I think, yeah, he was pretty tired from yesterday, out of gas.

I'm happy about my level because Davis Cup is about many times sensations, lower-ranked players playing unbelievable tennis. I was ready for it. I wanted to keep it clean from the first to the last point of the match. I'm really happy to bring a point to the team.

Q. This is your first Davis Cup Finals experience. Talk about what it was like out there on court, the atmosphere. And looking ahead to tomorrow, matchup against Spain.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Was great. I don't know if it was like full, full, but there were definitely a lot of people. That's cool because, I mean, we are playing in Madrid, Russia against Ecuador. You never know what to expect.

I'm happy that we had a full crowd for us. It's always pleasant. Of course, tomorrow going to be probably full, but most people against us. Not actually against us, but for Spain.

Experienced it many times lately, so going to be ready (smiling). Of course, the most important is going to try to get these two points and get the victory.

Q. Last week here in Torino, there was talk about how fast the court was. It's apparently the complete opposite this week with Davis Cup. Painfully slow. Lleyton Hewitt said it's one of the slowest courts he's come across. What is the court surface like there in Madrid?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Very slow. I found it very slow, which is in a way little bit strange because on practice I didn't feel it this way. Match is always different to practice. Yeah, that's 100%.

Today I felt it, yeah, very slow. The balls, like we just made a warmup, and I was serving first. I looked at the balls and I was like, They're dead and we have to play seven games with them.

Paris Bercy was pretty slow. I think, in my opinion, it's pretty much the same as in Paris because the serve still goes fast, still indoor hard court. At the same time you feel that in the point -- I mean, today I felt like it's almost impossible to make a winner both against me and for myself it was not easy. It was more about mistakes, I would say, where it was played today.

I think we can see later on some matches which are going to be really long and really exhausting.

Q. From Ecuador, how did you see the level of each Ecuador player, even Roberto won a set from Rublev.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, Roberto, I didn't see the match yesterday, to be honest, against Feliciano. I don't know how it was. Against Andrey, he played a really good second set. I'm glad first and third Andrey managed to show his best tennis. I think was hitting a lot of winners. It was enough to win.

Yeah, pretty good second set. Don't have anything more to say.

Emilio, we actually practiced with each other few times. I think he's a very good player, especially he showed it yesterday by the way he played against Pablo. Was pretty special.

But as I said, I think he was a little bit out of gas today. Also I managed to play a good match. It was enough to win today.