AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 22, 2022

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/B. Van de Zandschulp

6-4, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Are you happy with your first week here at the Australian Open?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, and today was I think the best match, because to be honest, the score doesn't say everything about the match.

Botic played really good. I even want to say he played, I think in my opinion, better than in US Open but maybe served a little bit worse, and that's where I took my chances. Almost like every game where I could break him I managed to do it. I think I had two games where I didn't break him when I had breakpoints, but it was enough today.

And, yeah, pretty happy about my level. Served well. Didn't get broken, even if he had opportunities. Was running pretty well. Yeah, was doing some good shots. Happy about my performance and looking forward to the next match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Big picture, you come into this tournament as the most recent Grand Slam winner with the US Open, and as No. 1 seed. Has that changed your mindset at all? You look like you're somebody who stays fairly relaxed, but has that given you more confidence or a different mindset knowing you are the most recent winner and the No. 1 seed?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Maybe a little bit more confidence, but the thing is that even when I was, I don't know, 50 in the world, of course, probably not going to win a Grand Slam, but I wanted to win. I hate to lose. I want to win every match I play. But definitely some extra confidence just by knowing that this is possible, and if not, I mean, every match is tough.

You know, as I say, today Botic had, for example, opportunities in the end of the first set to come back. It's 5-All, we never know what happens, who knows? Maybe he wins a tiebreak or whatever, he's one set up. Never the same story.

But again, in sport, we don't, you know, talk about the past, because, yeah, anything could happen. What happened happened.

So, yeah, I'm feeling just confident and great about my game.

Q. Your next opponent, Maxime Cressy. He's a rare serve and volleyer in men's tennis, haven't seen many of in recent years. What do you think about that challenge and if that can be effective style for a top player in this era of men's tennis?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, first of all, never played him. Yeah, he still haven't had too many finals. So I didn't watch a lot of his matches, but I saw some. I remember, for example, watching in the physio room he beat Carreno Busta in tiebreak of the US Open, was a great victory. That's when you start saying, Okay, he actually can beat top guys in a Grand Slam. Started this year with a final, now he's in the fourth round of a slam. You know, going pretty confident.

We'll have to prepare well tactically, mentally. I mean, I heard he serves pretty well. So if you don't have a good serve, probably you won't serve and volley and it's not going to be effective (smiling).

I do think it's possible, yeah, to be a top player like this. But like no matter what you do, slice, serve and volley, or return good, if you want to be at the top, top, you need to make it almost perfect, because other guys will try to break you and your style.

So far he's doing great I think in his career.

Q. You had experienced some issues with the crowd the other night. How did you feel tonight? Do you feel people are warming to you here? You've had a lot of support here in the past, seemed like a once-off the other night. How are you feeling about it?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's great. The other night I don't feel like there was anything wrong. I just talked about exactly one thing, which is between first and second serve, because the rest is, of course they are going to support Nick, I'm not stupid, you know.

So again, I didn't talk about anything the other night except the first and second serve, which I still think -- I actually wasn't wrong in my speech, because I said booing, but what I meant, and I saw it in other matches, when you miss a first serve and then there are pretty a lot of guys applauding, like going crazy. That shouldn't happen, but of course you can't control everybody.

And today was great. Yeah, was pretty funny the postmatch interview, because of course you cannot speak to the crowd like you cannot have a chat with them for two hours. But that's the only small moment where you can interact with them and I feel like it's fun.

Q. Just on the thing with the crowd, obviously you've had a bit of a love/hate relationship in New York and won a Grand Slam there. Seems like you're having the same character arc here in Australia. Does that help in your playing or do you just not think about it and then get into it during the on-court interview?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, to be honest, I don't think it's the same because the other night I was playing against an Australian player, very electric Australian player. Again, as I said, I didn't have any issues except the one small thing, which is first and second serve. After the match, I think it was, yeah, straightaway pretty actually fun for everybody. That's how I felt, and I didn't see actually a lot of let's say negative reactions.

US Open was a different story. I actually was not doing the right thing in the beginning, managed to, let's say like this, stay calm and turn it around by playing good.

Here, straightaway this match I feel like -- I like coming to Australia, I feel like people support me in general here. I want to even say feeling in a way like home. Every January you are here, you know you're going to be there. So I do think it's much more ups than downs with Australian crowd.