CHINA OPEN

October 2, 2023

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/U. Humbert

6-4, 3-6, 6-1

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Hello, everyone.

THE MODERATOR: Daniil, you are the very first player who makes it to the semifinals here this year. It's kind of a tough game today. How would you rate your performance?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, happy. Happy to be in the semifinals. When you come on the tournament, you always want to go as far as possible. Happy to still be here tomorrow. The further we go, the tougher the matches, the tougher the opponents. That's normal.

Looking forward to semifinal. So far happy. Hopefully I can be happy for two more matches.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Quite an up-and-down match today. The first set, lots of breaks of serve. A bit more consistency in the second set. Two double-faults, you handed that crucial break to him. How much of that victory today was down to your own persistence and digging in? How did you enable yourself to find that consistency really well in the final set?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, that's the thing. I've talked about this after the first match. With these balls, it's kind of like playing on clay, we call it. The only big difference is that the bounce, which is not like on clay, so it's still different, but it's very slow.

I mean, I lost two times my serve in the first set. I won it. I lost my serve in the third, I won it 6-1. Any other normal hard court with normal balls, no chance I win a match like this. Also no chance I lose so much my serve.

Yeah, that's what we have. To make an ace is tough. For him it was the same. I was just returning everything. Not easy. That's why it's normal. It's normal.

But I'm kind of happy that I managed to raise my level in important moments, except this game in the second set, which I actually agree with you, was probably the best set in terms of both of our games. First and third he played a little bit worse in some moments.

Yeah, it's great that I managed to still find in this tough match these moments of consistency, which is enough to win. That's what you have to do.

Q. Is not new for you to travel around the world. But still Beijing is a new city for you. Especially you're bringing your daughter here. I saw your wife is posting some wonderful pictures of Beijing. I saw your coach was trying some street food. I'm Chinese and I haven't tried that food before.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: That's funny.

Q. Last night you attended a wonderful player party. How do you and your team like the new adventure here in Beijing?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I love new cities in general. Even for some reason I don't like the city, I love to see new cities.

Beijing I think is a very nice city. It's probably quite different to Shanghai, but I didn't have that much time to visit. Was more my wife showing me pictures.

My coach, yeah, the first day he went to eat some street food. I ate once with him, it was in Shanghai five years ago, not the time I won, we ate together in one restaurant a lot of food like this. Was fine. I'm not a fan. He actually likes to try this stuff, so yeah.

We just don't have our daughter here, but that's fine. I like Beijing so far from what I see. I feel a lot of similarities to western countries. I like western countries (smiling).

Yeah, as I said, I like China. I like the food. Traffic could be better in China, but a lot of people, big city, so that's normal.

Will be happy to come back to Beijing many times.

Q. I know you are focusing on the match right now, but if you have the chance or time, what kind of activities do you want to try in China?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would love to go to the Great Wall, for sure. It's far and you have to walk. I don't know if I will have the time this year. Hopefully not. That's how tennis is. When you come to new city, new tournament, whatever, you hope you're not going to have to really do sightseeing.

But the good thing in a city like Beijing, which is a very historical place, if you lose early, you have a lot of time to go around. Yesterday was my day off, so I spent 15, 20 minutes in Summer Palace. Was really nice. I would love to have more time to walk around and visit it more.

As I say, hopefully I'm in the final. Like this I take the flight to Shanghai as soon as possible and unfortunately don't see Beijing but have good memories.

Q. I'm not sure whether you know a fun fact for you. You have won 20 ATP titles. All of them are from different cities.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I know (smiling).

Q. Beijing is a new city for you. Does that give you extra motivation to win here?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Honestly, not really extra motivation. I really want to win every time I step on court. So in a way I'm really disappointed that I never managed to defend one of my titles. Talking about the last one, US Open was the first one I could do it, I was in the final.

It's a fun fact. It's a fun story. This week I'm here in Beijing, so I hope to make it 21, 21 different cities. Yeah, it's going to be pretty special because I'm not sure anyone has done something like this before.

At the same time I hope to, in Shanghai, maybe break this story, try to win a second title in the same city, same tournament.

Q. In the semifinal you will play against the winner between Grigor Dimitrov and Jannik Sinner.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Zverev and Jarry, but it's okay. It's Zverev and Jarry.

Q. What is your expectation? Do you have the confidence?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, Sascha won the first set, so let's say he's closer to winning the match. But I saw that Jarry was leading in the second. Let's see who wins.

Against Nicolas we only played once on clay a long time ago. He was a different player, I'm was a different player. Strong hitter. Has an amazing year so far. Beat a lot of good opponents. So can be tough match.

Against Sascha, we played already four times this year, 16 times total. I think probably the most I ever played anyone. Many of our matches are going three sets, long tiebreaks, stuff like this, drama sometimes, whatever. Could be an interesting match if we manage to play again because, yeah, it's crazy how many times we played, and always a good match.

Q. In all Grand Slams, in ATP 1000, ATP 500, now in all hard court tournaments, you are at least coming to semifinals. You are so good at hard court. Could you share some experience at hard court?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I love hard courts. I saw this 10 minutes ago, somebody tweeted it. That makes me smile that I managed it. It's an achievement. I would love to maybe one day have titles on all these tournaments, but if we talk only about Masters and slams, I have all the finals. I won a lot of them.

Yeah, I will try to continue doing my best. Who knows, maybe at the end of my career I'm going to have the titles of all of them. I will try to do it.