DAVIS CUP FINALS

November 29, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Team Russian Tennis Federation

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/P. Carreno Busta

6-2, 7-6

Russian Tennis Federation - 1

Spain - 1

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. A quick question about your match first. How important was it for you to start as quickly as you did to sort of take the crowd out of the equation?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it was a great start, kind of same like yesterday, 5-0. Tough to lose a set from 5-0 down, even if I lost a break, managed to close it out.

I mean, I want to say there is no such thing as some matches' start is more than important than others. The easier you win the first set the better. Easier you win the second set, the better, and that's my kind of call it tennis style. I want to try to win every game I play. Sometimes it doesn't work like this. Sometimes you lose matches, you lose sets, you lose games.

But in general, definitely more even happy about the start than the finish. But still, important victory for the team, and I'm really happy about everything that happened today, actually.

Q. You've got Sweden in the quarterfinals on Thursday, I believe it is. What are your thoughts on that? Have you had a chance to maybe see any of their matches here in Madrid? They will be used to the conditions like you? What's your take?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, 100%, both teams are used to the conditions, so there is no such thing as somebody is in this favor.

We will have a lot of days off. They had one day more but we have a lot, so it doesn't matter also. I saw a few of their matches. Seemed like they were playing good, and they were actually a set away from closing it out with two victories in the group. They didn't manage to do it, but they were easily, I think, best second team in any of the groups. Like every time in Davis Cup, it's going to be a tough match. We know we are the favorites, but in sport, it doesn't matter all the time. So we just need to show our best tennis to win.

Q. Have you had a chance to speak to Andrey and Aslan after their victory? What's the atmosphere like?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Speak, not really. But everybody is super happy, because you know that's how we all are in the team, all five players, all the captains. I think, if I'm not mistaken, we needed to win just one game to be through. Yet we won a match, and that's all you need to know about us. We need want to win, no matter if it's a exhibition match, a match that doesn't count maybe for the tie, or an important match, our goal is to win. I think it's very important for the confidence of the team to win against such team as Spain. Even maybe they didn't have their best lineup, yet they are playing at home, and to beat them means a lot.

Q. Allow me to express gratitude of all Serbian tennis fans. I wanted to check whether this is a good reason for Novak to take you out to dinner, perhaps even for the semis in Madrid?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think we're not gonna do it during the tournament. But maybe one day, we'll see. It's funny, because during the match, we are already receiving some messages from some people from Serbia, let's call it like this, because I'm not going to say who, and not only me, but a lot of us, saying, Let's go, guys, we believe in you. I feel like that's where it's funny in a good way this format where, yeah, they had to be close to their TVs to cheer us up, let's call it like this.

As I said, our goal was to win a match. It was not to, let's say, kick Spain out or kick Serbia out. We just wanted to win the match, and we're really happy we have done it.

Q. I wanted to ask you, how do you feel about your results and the results of the team in these first days of the Davis Cup?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Really happy. You know, talking about myself or the whole team, definitely there were moments where maybe we could have done better, easier, faster, stronger, or you can call it as you want. But we have two victories, and that's what happens in Davis Cup. Doesn't matter if you win two sets, three sets, 2-1, 3-0. The most important is to get the win for the team. We have two out of two. That's great for the confidence, and we are looking forward to quarters.