THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 14, 2023

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/D. Medvedev

6-3, 6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for Daniil Medvedev.

Daniil, tough day today. Give us your initial thoughts.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, tough. It's tough to say because he played well. I feel like I didn't play too bad. Could have for sure played better. Little bit serving better. But it was not a terrible match.

But very tough because Centre, for sure, different to Court 1. I knew it. You have to adapt. It's not the first time in my career where I have to adapt to different courts. Not easy, because I didn't hit on Centre before this morning. Got 30 minutes.

It was a little bit more wet in a way, and the ball was sliding through the grass, and I was missing a lot because I was late a little bit to the ball. That's what I always said on grass, rhythm is the most important. That's a little bit what I was missing, especially on the return, I would say, yeah.

Q. 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, less than two hours. To me, you didn't play bad. It was just impressive from him. What is the most difficult part facing him?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, he's a very strong player. I would say in general to compare like the big three, they're amazing, they win so many Grand Slams, they win so many matches. He's kind of like them. He's still 20. Already has one Grand Slam. Playing great. Been No. 1 for many, many weeks.

At the same time I managed before in my career to beat the best players in the world, including some of the big three. Never beat Roger, but we never played also when I started to be really in the top 10 in a way.

You have to play your best. You have to play your absolute best. As you say, as I say, I didn't play bad, but I didn't play my absolute best. Against someone like Carlos, Novak, Rafa, you need to be at your best.

Maybe against other guys you can be playing not bad, you're going to have your chances, during the match you're going to find something to work with. With Carlos, you need to be at your absolute best and that's how you can win. Unfortunately, I was not.

Q. What is your process for getting over a disappointment like this? Do you have something you do?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Depends. I don't know yet how right now because in a way, before the tournament...

I would say like this - how can we say it - if one would ask me, Are you happy with the semifinal? I'm like yes and no. For sure if I'm in the semifinal, I want to win it. I want to play against Novak on Sunday. I want to try to hold the trophy.

But it's my best Wimbledon so far. Normally on grass I didn't feel amazing. These two weeks I felt great. I'm trying usually after the losses to find the positives. I was in four best players of the tournament, together with amazing players: Jannik, Novak, and Carlos.

Actually, I don't think in a way after the big three started to get a little bit injured and stuff, we got a lot of slams where top three were in the semis. Usually you have upsets and stuff like this.

It's great to prove that again and again I can be in the deepest stages of the biggest tournaments. But I will be disappointed with the loss. The only thing I can say to myself is next time, try better. Try to win a slam next time. Try to beat Alcaraz or whoever else next time. That's the only way till you finish your career.

Q. Do you think Carlos has what it takes to beat Novak on Sunday?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think, yes. They never played on grass. Novak on grass, what, he won - I don't want to count - but 30-some matches in a row in Wimbledon. So it's going to be tough just because you play a guy who barely loses here (smiling).

I think should be interesting match. Actually, a little bit what surprised me in a way, again, we're talking that maybe I didn't do enough well, but there were players who were causing trouble to Carlos. Jarry won a set and was up in the fourth with a break. Berrettini for a set and a half was causing big troubles.

I unfortunately didn't manage to do it. That's where I'm disappointed. I'm like, Other guys could, and I didn't manage to do it here in the semis. At the same time, maybe he played better.

Yeah, it's going to be an interesting final. No. 1 and 2 in the world right now. Even if I have amazing season, I think they're even quite far ahead in the race, in the points now just because every tournament they play, they go far.

I think we cannot say who's going to win for sure. I think could be a tough match.

Q. I know you prefer the hard courts. Now that you have a Masters on the clay and a Wimbledon semifinal, which two of the surface do you prefer? Which result is a bigger deal?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know. I don't know. So tough to say because Masters is a big thing. We know that Grand Slam is bigger. It's out of five sets. Yeah, it's the toughest there is, I think, in tennis.

But Masters is also a big deal. I would say it's equal for the moment. So let's see next years, let's see if throughout my career I'm going to be able to do a better result in a slam than here. On clay basically, except Roland Garros, I cannot do better, because Masters is the second thing after Grand Slam.

Let's see where I will be able to go even further, Roland Garros or here.

Q. Coming into this tournament you weren't sure what the mood would be like here given everything going on in the world. Can you give me a sense of how you found it the past two weeks?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Amazing. Amazing. Even today, as I said throughout the two weeks, they were going for the underdog. I was losing in the match, so they were supporting me, supporting me like crazy. I felt like they wanted the match to prolong.

I actually tried. I broke him two times. But my serve was going worse and worse. He was putting pressure. I was doing some second serves 100 miles per hour. Pretty decent second serves. He was crushing them. I tried.

It was amazing to be back at Wimbledon. I hope I can come back here many, many more years and try to improve the result. That's what I managed to do this year. I'm going to try even harder next few years.

As I say, it's been absolutely amazing. Not only during the matches on the court. Generally, if I saw anyone in the city, if anyone saw me in the city, or in the cafes or stuff like this, it was a great, great atmosphere. Really grateful. Will be happy to come back to England many more times.

Q. Are you someone who digests a defeat like this rather easily? What's next for you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Very tough to answer because usually I would say yes, but many times it happened to me that after some defeats I would have two, three tournaments really bad - how can we say - curve where I would play bad. I would be like, Probably it's coming from the defeat, so I have to digest it better, get over it.

Sometimes actually I was able to straightaway kind of jump from the defeat and let's say win the next tournament or something like this.

I mean, as I said previously, I cannot change the past. I can only try to play better next time. If I have one more semifinal of Wimbledon, I have to try to play better, serve better, miss less. That's the only way I can go forward.

Next tournaments, I need to try to do better, try to win them, try to play my best.

Q. I think you don't watch tennis that much when you're out of the tournament. Will you watch this final?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a very great match. I'm not going to lie, it's a very great match to watch, but I'm not going to watch it because I'm going to be too disappointed to not be there. I lost. I don't deserve to be there in the final because I didn't win today.

But if I watch it on TV, I'm probably going to digest my loss worse because I'm going to be like, My God, this forehand, this double-fault, this return, I should have done better. Let's say Novak wins, I should have done like Novak. Why didn't I do it? Too many questions.

I am going to follow live score probably. I'm going to be interested in the live score, but I'm not going to watch it. Maybe we'll see the highlights or something in the news or something like this.

Q. Where do you see your game in four or five years?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it always depends for me about the percentage. What I feel like is going to be the best shot to win. If at one moment of my career I'm going to be there and I say, Look, right now I think doing serve and volley every point is going to be the best chance for me to win most matches possible, I'm going to do it.

For the moment, I don't think so. Today, I tried, like against Eubanks, to go a little bit closer on the return. Carlos' serve with a little bit of kick was not that easy on grass because it was giving me different bounces. From the close, I felt like it was not a good thing to return from close, so I went back. Actually it was working not too bad.

It's the same. It depends my body. I don't know how I'm going to be in three, four years. Hopefully great and I can run like I do right now.

But in general, probably what we see from players, the older you get, the more you have to adapt. I'm going to adapt if needed. I feel like I'm still a good tennis player and I'm capable to adapt to different situations.

Q. Do you see yourself playing tennis at 37 like Novak?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it's possible, but it definitely depends my body, and depends my family. If at one moment, imagine my family tells me, Look, we want you, my children or my wife, we want you to be more at home, maybe I'm going to say, I'm going to just play Grand Slams. If it doesn't work out, you drop in the ranking and you finish your career.

It depends many things. You can get injured, get out of the top hundred, not be able to come back. But in general I would say I want to be like this.

I want to say at 37 years old be playing at the best level of tennis possible. But it depends many, many different aspects. I'm going to try my best to be able to do it.