MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 26, 2023

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Daniil, welcome back to Madrid. Were you able to take some days off after Monte-Carlo and all your great results at the beginning of the year?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I was able to take some. I don't know if it was enough, but yeah, I was able to just cut off tennis a little bit and, yeah, then continued my preparation for Madrid.

It's always not easy to play Madrid, because altitude, a little bit dry, dry clay courts which usually should be good for me but it's not easy to adapt. So trying to practice well and looking forward for my next match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Is your whole feeling about clay changing?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't think so. I don't think it will ever change, unless maybe -- we laughed about this with my coach today. Maybe last year of my career I come to him and say, Look, Gilles, we are going to prepare, we are only going to play on clay court this season so I'm going to be able to be better and better.

The thing is that if I want to be better on clay, I have to practice more on it maybe during preseason stuff, but I have such an ability to be playing good on hard courts that it's all about priorities. I cannot, before Australian Open, say to myself that two weeks of the preseason I'm going to play on clay court because we're not 100% sure it's gonna help me, and I could play better overall for preparation for Australia.

This year, for example, before Monte-Carlo I had probably three, four days of clay practice, which is not enough, especially for me where I don't like playing that much, and so now it's the only time, where, yeah, every day I'm trying to somehow fix some small things, small adjustments, and try to play better, but I definitely will be happy to come back to hard courts.

Q. You just said you're not sure about clay still but do you consider Madrid a slightly different case? Because the ball moves quickly through the air here. It might suit some aspects of your game?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's definitely different. I would say it's a little bit like Roland Garros clay where it's kind of on a harder surface, it's not the clay that where your legs and balls go into the ground. It's a little bit harder surface. Also altitude, so the balls are flying.

So what I see from results of many people, I should be able to actually play better here than maybe other clay court tournaments. So far, I was not able to do it. But every year is a new opportunity. This year is another one, and I'm going to try to just play my best and hopefully play some good tennis.

Q. Could you be doing too well in this period between slams?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean. The thing is that I have always been like this, you know. Somehow we see this that I would say Novak is probably the best in the history for this, that you see kind of even in his face that on Grand Slams he's different.

Me, I still didn't find let's say this power to come on the court and say, Well, today I'm gonna be the best version of myself. So then because I cannot be like this, I just try to do it every day, and every day is impossible, but as many days as I can, I try to do it.

I'm really happy that I managed to win so many tournaments. You know, would it be better to win one slam than maybe play the series of five tournaments? Maybe, but that's not how it works for me. I just try to play my best every day, and I'm not scared. I think the better I play at these tournaments, the better I can play in Grand Slams.

Q. As you said, the clay court is not your favorite court, but you started the clay season in a nice way in the quarterfinals of Monte-Carlo. What do you expect for the tournament? What is the expectations that you have to play here? Where is the small adjustment that you have to do to play here in comparison to Monte-Carlo, for example?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I'd say first of all my biggest expectation is to try to play well, because even on clay when I play well I know that I'm capable of beating great guys, playing good tennis, going even far in the tournaments. I made finals in Barcelona once, beating great players, semis in Monte-Carlo.

This year in Monte-Carlo was great also, so that's what I'm expecting. I'm trying, yeah, to work hard, to be ready for the first match. That's gonna be a tough one straightaway.

And then about the adjustments, yeah, I would say that, as I say, this court is a little bit harder, so I think the serve can be faster here than on other clay courts, but still on clay courts, the first shot after the serve is very important, to prepare well for it, and the movement is, for me at least, much tougher on clay with the sliding. That's why I'm trying to work every day.

Q. You play in Spain, Alcaraz's house. Is Carlos' level scary?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Oh, he plays well, yeah. He's still 19 or going to be 20 here, no? Yeah, I think so. Soon, probably, because it's always in Madrid.

You know, he already achieved so many things in tennis that it's already amazing, and he has so many years in front of him. I don't know what else to say. A lot of things to say, but it would be easier to say them when he's going to be 35 and we see what exactly he achieved (smiling).

But I saw a little bit the final in Barcelona, and, yeah, he's playing great. He's serving strong. His dropshots are unbelievable. I remember against me in Indian Wells, some of them, I was, like, Yeah, I was not expecting this, the dropshot from this position.

Then the next week in Miami I think a lot of guys maybe saw the final, so they started to do only dropshots against me. Yeah, it's not the same. It's like, okay, continue doing it. I'm there. Against him, I'm not there.

Yeah, he's playing great and everyone knows it. Yeah, if you have him in your draw, it's scary.

Q. What's the most difficult part for you playing on court? And explain a little bit more how do you feel when Alcaraz do these kind of dropshots?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, so the toughest thing -- you ask about clay or any surface? What's hard, you ask about clay? Clay, the movement is the toughest for me. I feel like I'm, let's say, I'm moving well on hard courts. I don't want to praise myself too high. But I like moving on hard courts. I like running for the balls. I like playing long rallies.

On clay courts, that's not the case. I'm still trying to learn to slide in a good way. Many times I hit the shot and I slide after the shot, so I lose five seconds to get to the next one. That's not good. So the movement is the toughest part for me on clay.

And about Alcaraz, yeah, as I said, his dropshots, I think he's been doing this since he's probably young, because since I remember him coming on the tour, he's always been doing it. They are very disguised.

And the thing is that, let's say, one out of two he's going to make a dropshot, but the one he doesn't make it's going to be a bomb forehand, so you can't just run for it because then it's going to be a winner.

Yeah, I'm going to be interested to play him more and more to try and see how I can handle this part better, because again, in Indian Wells, the court was closer to clay courts in terms of speed, so I think it was favorable for him. Maybe other hard courts would be easier for me to try to see what I can do.

Q. You recently described yourself as a hard court specialist, so the first question is what would you be on clay? The second question is do you have goals during this period of the season, particularly in terms of the French Open?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Goals, tough to say, because on hard courts, honestly, my every goal is to try to win the tournament.

On clay courts, I think the moment I win a big title, if it's gonna happen in my career, we never know, the goal is going to be every time after this to win a tournament.

Right now I was not able to do it, so at the moment it's like try maybe to do better than I did once in Monte-Carlo. It was semis of a Masters 1000 and then finals of Barcelona, so maybe to make finals of a Masters 1000 on clay would be great.

But my first goal is try to feel good, because there were moments I felt good on clay, and try to get this feeling where I feel like I have the control of the game, I feel like I can put my opponent in trouble.

How I would describe myself? Let's call it this way: Not clay specialist (smiling).