MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 24, 2022

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. (Off mic.)

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: In my opinion, the surface, both Indian Wells and Miami, which is I think usually similar, has been really slow and like really slow, like one of the slowest hard courts.

So, yeah, I made some adjustments comparing to Indian Wells, and I feel like I'm playing much better. Then, yeah, when you play Masters 1000, you play tough opponents. Even if you are playing them better, doesn't mean you're going to beat everybody.

So I'm practicing hard, working hard on my game, and will try to be better than I was in Indian Wells.

Q. I just wondered if it feels different for you now, No. 1 ranking, obviously you were there for a couple weeks, moved back down, do you find yourself looking at the permutations seeing what's needed to get back there week in, week out?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it's not something that stays in my mind nonstop, like I'm not going to bed saying, How could I lost it, how can I get it back? But I know the mathematics, read them all over the place a little bit, and it's kind of the same like in Indian Wells.

I didn't manage to play my best there, so that's why I lost. That's why I lost the No. 1 spot. If I manage to play good tennis here, I think I have my chances of getting it back. But, yeah, you know, I want to try my best every day on every practice, every match.

If it's going to be No. 2, it's going to be No. 2. If it's going to be No. 5, then it is what it is, you know. I just want to do my best, which I tried to do in Indian Wells and, yeah, here I have to do better if I want to get it back.

Q. You mentioned the slow courts here. What are you doing technically and/or tactically with adjusting your game to the slow courts and with clay season coming up?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I actually feel like, yeah, it's something in between like normal fast hard courts and clay court, because I'm not going to say it's like clay courts here. That's also not true.

You about, yeah, Indian Wells is usually not the best place for me about my tennis level, so that's why there I didn't ask myself too much questions. I just tried to play better. Didn't manage to work out.

Miami, I usually play a little bit better. And when I came, I felt like my game was not there yet, so I tried, yeah, to make some adjustments with my coach. We were talking a lot to see how can I play better in the conditions we have here, because basically what happens is that in Indian Wells I practiced on the other courts, and because the courts are so, I don't know how to call it in English, but they like cut the ball. So after you hit like five shots the ball is full, big and fluffy, and then you don't have the same shot coming from the strings.

So in Indian Wells I practiced off-site after the tournament. I was like, Wow, that's like a completely different tournament and yet the air and conditions are the same. Yeah, I was talking to my coach a lot how can I make it. I want to be honest, I won't share my secrets but I feel like we have done good adjustments and I'm ready to play good.

Q. A political question, there were big headlines in the UK about the British sports minister saying that he had been speaking to Wimbledon and that he, as a politician, felt that we need, this is a quote, we need some potential assurance that they, Russian players, who come to play at Wimbledon, are not supporters of Putin, and are considering what requirements we may need to try and get assurances along those lines. It was presented a bit as something you'd have to address maybe by being critical of Putin. What's your response to that story?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Look, I try to take it tournament by tournament. I mean, there are always, you know, different rules, regulations in order to play or not to play.

You know, right now I'm here in Miami. I can play and I'm happy to play tennis. That's, you know, the sport I love. I want to promote the sport all over the world. We'll have tough moments and good moments.

That's, to be honest, all I have to say, you know. That's going to be the same with every tournament. So the next one after this one is Monte-Carlo, you know, where this moment I'm a resident there, so I love this tournament also. I can play it normally and I'm happy to play it.

Don't have any response to Wimbledon.

Q. You don't know yet whether you'd be prepared to meet that requirement?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: You know, that's all I have to say. I will need to see what happens next.

Q. Slight variation on that, but is it, with everything going on, I know it's 100% outside your control, but I'm wondering kind of week by week is it getting more difficult for you to kind of block that out and ignore it?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think everybody knows what's happening, so it's basically of course impossible to ignore it, but, you know, I always said everybody has different opinions on different things in the world. You know, I always said I'm for peace. You know, same.

You ask me five years ago, I don't know if I was ever asked this, but five years ago, three years ago when there was a COVID situation a little bit worse than maybe it is right now, at least from what we are hearing, same. You know, I want everybody to be safe, healthy, myself included, other people included, everybody in the world. Sometimes it's not possible, but, yeah, that's what I want.

Q. Do you think it's fair you, as a tennis player, is potentially going to be penalized for something that's out of your control? I know it's a fluid situation, but...

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: You know, I want to say every country, that's how life is, every country can set their own rules. Maybe tomorrow somebody's gonna announce, I don't know, We don't want any more tennis tournaments. Some big country will say -- say, one country has a Grand Slam, and maybe some other Masters events gonna say, We don't want any more tennis in our country, the president gonna say it. He has the right to do it. That's how life is.

It's very tough in life to talk what is fair and not fair. So I of course do have my own opinions on different topics, but I prefer, yeah, to speak about them with my family, with my wife, where we can sometimes disagree but we can discuss and, yeah, it's much easier when you have a (indiscernible) about this.

Yeah, that's all I have to say.