THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 7, 2023

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/A. Mannarino

6-3, 6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Daniil Medvedev's press conference.

Daniil, how did you feel out on court today?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, not easy to play two different days. The last time I had it, I lost to Hurkacz here two years ago.

4-All, never easy. Straightaway you're nervous, you don't want to lose this set because the momentum of the match can change. So happy that I managed to close it out on the tiebreak. I feel like I played pretty well from the start today. We had some unbelievable points actually.

Happy that I managed to push it through and be here tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You mentioned this evolution of you on grass. A little bit better every day?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: So far, yes. That's perfect. That's how I want to be. That's how you want to be in a Grand Slam. This match was much better than the first one.

I felt that I was doing many, many things good. I lost my serves, unfortunately, two times. In general against someone like Adrian, it's actually not too bad.

Today I would think maybe I played even better than yesterday. So far happy. Yeah, the further you go, the tougher the opponents, the tougher the matches.

Q. Are you feeling at home on grass? You used the phrase the other day 'don't feel at home'.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Getting there. Maybe at the door. Not inside, but at the door.

Q. Why do you think some players seem to take to it so naturally, others don't? What are the biggest challenges and obstacles?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know exactly. For me, it's impossible to answer because it's same about clay, hard courts or grass. There are some players that don't do so well on grass. Usually it's year after year. When I see them play, it's strange because their game should be suited well for grass.

Sometimes maybe the beliefs, which who knows, maybe I had this on clay. When you don't believe you can do well on the surface, of course it hurt you a little bit. Sometimes it's something you don't see.

Again, both grass and clay, comparing to hard courts, because it's a natural surface, has more difference in the bounces. Sometimes a player can slice, and out of three times, two times it's probably going to slide through the court, because that's how grass court is. Then for whatever reason, you don't know why, it's going to stop. It's not easy to adjust. Some people like it less than others.

No definite question. Let's say just luck (smiling).

Q. What adjustments have you made?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think for me, the main adjustment is the rhythm. As I say, when someone plays good on grass, it's tough to return back the shots because they can sometimes slide through the court, sometimes stop. Give him an easy ball to work with. Some players work well with easy balls.

This match exactly with Adrian, I managed to be the one who I think was giving him trouble playing long, strong, then sometimes mixing up with the dropshots, even going to the net maybe more often. That's what I want to try to continue to do on grass, being the one who controls the game more than my opponent.

Q. What do you remember about your first Wimbledon, what you were like then? Also, what have you learnt over the years about life as a tennis player and the lifestyle that you didn't know then?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: About life as a tennis player, I probably wouldn't be able to tell everything. For sure a different player.

I remember very well my first Wimbledon. I came from Eastbourne semifinals, which was a very good result for me, losing to Novak in a pretty what I felt was not a bad match for me. I knew I'm going to play Stan on the Monday. I lost Friday. I had some time to prepare. I was not yet well-known on the tour. Stan just came from the Roland Garros final, I think.

But I felt like, at the time, grass was my favorite surface. I was like, I can do it. I managed to beat him. That was the biggest victory at the moment of my career. That was amazing.

Then there was a match where maybe I thought after getting such a victory I should in a way maybe dominate or win. That was not the case. 2-0 for Ruben. I come back from two sets to love down, have a break in the fifth, get angry with what I thought was a bad call. I don't even know if it was or not. There was no challenge. Maybe I saw it wrong.

I think, yeah, where I for sure matured with playing these big tournaments and winning many matches is now I know that no matter the result you make, if it's 7-6 in the fifth against an amazing opponent, or three easy sets, next day is a new match. I feel like now I know how to prepare these moments.

I had some tough matches even in Grand Slams, and I managed to win the next ones. That's I think where I matured the most, is I know how to prepare the next match.

Q. Holger Rune complained about the anti-doping system for the Brooksby case.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: For the what, the Brooksby case or...

Q. Brooksby. Can you tell us what is the anti-doping system for a player, what is your opinion?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough to answer. I think anti-doping generally in sports is a good thing. We need it because never know who cheats, who doesn't.

The side effect of this is that sometimes you see players in the locker room, then you have stories like many players, I don't even going to say names. Then you see they have, like, maybe I'm not sure exactly what I'm saying, but five milligrams of one prohibited substance, where even anti-doping in some cases says this couldn't affect your performance. This could be maybe protein shake, who knows, water you drink, for whatever reason it's there.

For sure it's a pity if you didn't do anything. I can imagine this happening. Didn't do nothing all your life, then you get a positive result. You know you're probably going to be out for one, two years. You're like, Wow, I haven't done anything. At the same time probably someone has done anything.

Yeah, it is what is. You have to be very careful.

Regarding Brooksby case, I didn't see in details, but what I heard from my coaches, he says they didn't knock on the right door and something like this. I myself had one time two missed tests. It was the first year I was on the ADAMS system. It's not easy.

I don't know. Imagine you're not married and you decide to sleep at your girlfriend who's one hour away from your home, and you decide last moment. You forget to change the time slot. One missed test. Three can get pretty fast.

I had two for a long time. I made sure I'm not going to miss one more. It's not going to be possible that I'm going to miss one more. Since then I don't think I have ever missed one.

I can imagine your interphone [sic] don't work. Yeah, some stories could happen.

As I said, I think some cases are really bad luck. Then we have probably in other sports or in tennis, I don't know, some players cheating.

Yeah, don't know the exact answer (smiling).

Q. You have a fabulous relationship with crowds.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Not everywhere (smiling). It's entertaining, for sure.

Q. Your speech after Rome, You love me, you hate me. That was just great. We have all these different crowds in tennis. Here. The loudness of New York. Paris gets passionate. Talk about the different crowds around the world, maybe your favorite, least favorite.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would honestly say probably US Open will have to be the favorite just because of the way it started for sure with Feliciano Lopez match. I get booed honestly for a reason probably. Then getting booed the next match. I was getting against them, going against them.

Then at one moment I was like, Okay, I shouldn't go against them. They're actually super energetic. Somehow with this crazy Rafa match, I managed to turn this around during the same tournament, which was amazing feeling.

When I played against Novak, I mean, all the stadium at the end was for him. He was going for a Grand Slam. But for whatever reason, sometimes when the crowd goes against you, it's not an easy feeling.

For whatever reason, this final, I felt like they were going for him and not against me. It's very tough to explain. US Open for sure the favorite just because of so many stories, and that's my only slam, Grand Slam victory.

I mean, what else can I say? Yeah, as you say, different crowd all over the world. I always said that I try to just be myself. Because they are so different, probably you can find the way to adapt to them and try to make them all love you or hate you. Depends what you want.

I'm not like this. I want to be myself. Even if with some crowds that's going to cause a bad relationship, well then be it. I don't like to fake and lie.

Q. You lost early at Roland Garros, so you had a lot of time to prepare this tournament. With something unexpected is happening, like 10 days in your planning that was not necessarily expected, it's an important decision to make to decide what you're going to do. What did you decide to do when you had these two weeks suddenly?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's true that for a tennis player it's never easy to decide these moments. I do think there are some sports in the world, especially from what I hear, for example, Formula 1 drivers, they can in a way maybe spend two, three months without driving the actual Formula 1 car. Well, this happens to them. Then get back and kind of be straightaway into it.

Well, in tennis that's not possible. Two weeks you don't hold the racquet, if you play the match in three days, you're probably going to lose it.

When you lose early, it's good, I have some time off. I can either say next day I'm going to practice already full and try to prepare the next tournament, or I take some days off. When I take the days off, what do I do? Do I still go to the gym? How many do I take a week? Three days? I feel like with experience in your career, you try to make the best decision.

I lost Roland Garros Tuesday. I took a week off. I think I started next Tuesday. We were thinking with my wife what should we do, go to holiday somewhere, enjoy the beach or something like this.

She was like, Where is the next Formula 1 Grand Prix? It was in Barcelona. We were in Paris. We live in Monaco so we're like, Yeah, that's the best timing to try to be there. We were there. It was amazing experience.

Mentally I was fully recharged by seeing another sport from another perspective. Then I was like, Okay, let's go back to practice, try to prepare well Wimbledon.

So far working good, so let's see how it goes later on.