AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2023

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/J. Millman

7-5, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Impressive performance. How happy are you with your play today?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It was a great match. A lot of long rallies, high level. I'm really happy that in such match you can sometimes, if you miss just some shots, you can go into five sets, like we saw today we saw with some favorites. I'm happy that I managed to stay calm and play good and win in three sets.

Q. Great to see you come all this way. Of course, with all the weird things happening with injuries, with these weather patterns changing and so on, says how uncharacteristic is this Australian Open for you, and does it pay at all to look on the other side to see how things are progressing? Is there any sense at all in that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, first of all, Melbourne was always like this. Some days super hot, and then the same day it can drop drastically the weather in the evening. So I think what I saw from the forecast we don't have that much hot days coming, which is a little bit strange for Melbourne, so maybe that's the only thing.

Then at the same time, as I say, I remember, what was it, 2021 it was pretty cool. Then one day I played Rublev, it was brutal, then again pretty cool. You never know in Melbourne.

I didn't really get your second question.

Q. You know, there are a lot of injuries. There are a lot of these external factors playing in. So I'm saying is there any sense to really looking at the other side seeing how Novak is doing, how others are doing in the sense of, you know...

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, for sure the most important is to focus on yourself because. Well, that's the only way how you can win, you know? Novak can lose. Rafa can lose. Stefanos can lose. But if you lose too, it doesn't matter that they lose (laughing).

You have to focus on yourself, try to win no matter who you play. Then, yeah, for sure, when I'm in the bed in the hotel room, I watch the matches, but, like, I watch just for fun to see some tennis.

But, yeah, the only thing I can say, I hope everyone stays healthy and we have some good tennis. That's it.

Q. It feels like a lot of the attention so far has been on Djokovic and Rafa. You made the final last year. Do you feel like you've flown under the radar a little bit this year?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know, but it's normal when we have Rafa and Novak that all the attention comes to them. That's completely normal, especially with what happened with Novak last year. Everyone is looking at him, how will he do this year?

I don't know exactly the number, but he won, whatever, 40 matches in Australia in a row. He gets all the attention. That's normal. He won here, what, eight times probably.

Q. Nine.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: All of this small, we can talk, we can talk about the humans, and, again, normal that he gets all the attention.

I can only play, you know, and I will try to play good. It's true that, yeah, I made the finals two last times playing here, so feeling good to play in Australia and looking forward to play some more matches this year.

Q. If we go back 12 months after that final, you spoke very openly about how you were feeling. I'm just wondering, do you think those feelings and that final had an affect on the rest of your season last year? Like, how long did it take you to get over that and being in Melbourne? Is it kind of like a nice reset again?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: First of all, you never know. I think it did affect me in a negative way. I mean, first of all, just losing this final is not easy, especially in the context that I won the previous slam and I was really close to winning the second one.

And then it's not that you lose motivation. I was really motivated to continue doing well, but I think you lose - how to say it in English - you lose the connection, and that's what happened a little bit to me. Then I had a surgery and couldn't play Wimbledon.

So I had only US Open to play and lost to Nick who played good. You know, never know if I play a different guy.

A little bit tough to talk about the season. You never know what went wrong, but for sure great reset to come here. I feel like the crowd -- I'm enjoying the crowd. I'm enjoying the crowd. I'm enjoying being here, playing here.

Adelaide was super special even against Novak. Like, the atmosphere was super good and really happy. Looking forward to my next matches.

Q. How does it feel being a Grand Slam champion, being World No. 1 for 16 weeks, whatever it was? How much different is it for you mentally entering into a tournament like this knowing what you've done in the past and that you can do those things?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think, you know, I know this experience. I know what I have to do and how I have to play to try to win these tournaments. I know that I'm capable of it. That's only positive thing. The negative part is that I dropped in the rankings a little bit, so usually you can get a little bit tougher draw.

I mean, in a way with Rafa out, usually you can get a little bit tougher draw. But, again, to gain back this ranking, I need to play better, I need to win stronger tournaments, to get further in those tournaments.

And, again, I'm feeling really confident, really motivated to try to do a better season this year. It all starts here like every year. So looking forward again to my next matches.

Q. Just on that final last year, and I know last year you sort of had a bit of fun with the crowd in Australia as well, do you feel like you've got a point to prove coming back to Australia?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Maybe. To the crowd maybe because, yeah, it was a strange relationship last year. Let's call it this way.

But, again, at least me in my life I'm kind of, how do you say, I forget things easily. So, again, really happy to be here this year. Just played two matches. Played against an Aussie today and was great atmosphere. Again, for sure they're going to support him more, but. I mean, it was really great playing on Margaret Court, playing on Rod Laver the other day.

I don't know if I have something to prove, but hopefully it's going to be working well like it does right now.

Q. You were sort of joking with Jim Courier on the court afterwards about your physique compared to someone like Marton Fucsovics. I'm just wondering was there ever a point in your development where you thought I really do want to or need to sort of change your physique or put on a lot more muscle, or have you always sort of just had faith in sort of how you are?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: The thing is I am not sure I can because, you know, I mean, I don't really because I don't like how I do physical. But I'm capable of doing strong weights. I'm not going to tell it here, but, like, I'm capable of doing weights where if you see me, you won't be able to believe I'm doing this. In the way my muscles develop. I know it because I can run faster, stronger for longer time and not get as injured as I was in the beginning of my career.

That was the goal with my physical coach. We worked really hard in the gym. The only thing that it won't show on my body, but it was always like this.

I remember when I was 16 years old, I was still practicing in Russia at one moment, so it's the age where you can kind of develop physically, and usually you can develop muscle. My physical coach at the time said, Okay, we're going to do -- I think we did pretty much four sessions in the gym, real musculation with protein shakes after, whatever. Literally, you can't see anything.

I become stronger. I know I become stronger. I can lift stronger weights, but looking in the mirror, nothing changes, so that's just how I am. I like it, so yeah.