ROLEX MONTE-CARLO MASTERS

April 10, 2024

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/G. Monfils

6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. The moment of the match, I think everyone is interested in it, please tell us your side of the story once again.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I still tried to find the bounce now. I cannot actually say 100% it was out, because I still didn't see it myself. But what I heard from someone, I think like from ATP, that it was out. When I saw it, I saw it out like this, like quite big, and I didn't even stay there to check what Mohamed says.

When he comes in and I see his edit, I'm like, he's literally going to say it's in when it's out. I told him, Okay, what do we do if it's in? Because I know it's out. What do we do after the match if I lose this game, which I lost, because it would be 40-Love and not 30-15.

Then I was, like, Okay, calm down, Daniil. Let's go for next point, let's go for next games. What happens next if the ball is even more out and the line umpire doesn't say anything? The ball is very slow. He's right there. I have no idea how it's possible that he doesn't say out.

I go crazy. I lose two games because I go crazy. I calm down. I win the match, so I'm happy. That's my part of the story, I guess (smiling).

Q. You say you want to be less crazy. How do you work on it? Because it doesn't work sometimes.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, first of all, knowing who I am and where I come from in terms of my attitude, I'm going to get crazy sometimes on court, whether it's myself, my team, crowd, umpire, I'm going to go crazy sometimes. I'm trying to work that I go crazy less and it affects my game less.

I'm happy. You know, maybe other match I lose because of this, but this exact match, already at 3-1, I managed to be more calm and I had Love-30, and he hit, like, a let and he won the game and I get crazy again.

Actually, I managed to calm myself down again, saying to myself I don't want to lose the match because of what happened now because of me getting crazy. I want to continue playing the way I should play. I want to continue to try to win, and I managed to do it.

So I'm pretty happy sometimes. Sometimes if you don't control the crazy in the moment you have to control the crazy after the moment, and I didn't control it best, but I managed to do it much better than sometimes before in my career. That's why I managed to win the match.

Q. Do you have the feeling you were in a tactical battle against Gael? Can you say maybe a point that Gilles Simon give to you before?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, I think first of all, for me it's always tough to talk about tactical battle too much, because sometimes when you beat someone you can be here and you say, Oh, my God, I played so good, my plan was so good before the match, but then every match is different.

Maybe Gael had a bad day. If we could be here together, maybe we could discuss and he would say, Look, I didn't feel anything today. I was missing so much. And then I would be, like, Maybe it's not my plan. Maybe he just had a bad day.

Q. He says that you were a tactical professional.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Okay, good to know.

But I think the main part was that he's very good in defense. That's why we get Gael highlights, and even today I think he made maybe one or two or three amazing points.

So the plan was not to be too aggressive. That's it. I felt like he, in a way, knew it during the match and then where it was, like, the question is, because you still have to be aggressive sometimes, and it was to choose the right shot and maybe I did it a little bit better today than him, but yeah, basically he's so good in defense that sometimes you should not attack him.

Q. In a recent interview you talked about your friendship with Andrey, with Karen. You're going to play Karen again. You mentioned you know him since you were 10 or 12?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, 9, 10, I don't even remember exactly.

Q. What are some of the earliest memories you have?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Oh, my God. Talking about crazy, when I was younger I didn't like to play Karen. Now it's never, like, I don't like to play someone or I like to play someone. I think I lost maybe two, won four, I don't know exactly.

When I was young I really didn't like to play him. At one point he was really better than me, so I was going crazy. I was getting, like, you know, code violations and stuff, because I was just not controlling myself well enough.

That would be the craziest memories. I'm sure he remembers some of them, because he's a little bit more calm than me. So every time a calmer guy would look at me, he would be, like, looking at something new and always surprised.

So Karen was on the other side of the net looking with eyes like this, really surprised by what I was doing all the time. Then we grew up and now we can laugh about all these moments.

It's a big match. You know, on clay I feel like Karen can play very, very well, can be very dangerous.

Played well today. I want to continue this way. If I want to go far in biggest tournaments, I need to beat top guys.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. Gael was just saying that it's not because a player says he doesn't like clay that he can't be efficient on the surface. So you say you don't like clay that much, but you played already very well like in Rome. What are your goals for this season?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Last season mainly showed me that I can win any tournament on clay, because when you win Rome and you go to the quarters in the French, playing five sets, I believe I can win any tournament.

There's no difference between the French or Rome. Of course the French is a Grand Slam, so it's a bit different, but if you are able to do well in those tournaments, you are able to play any clay court tournament. It's good for my confidence. I know I can do well if I play well.

Now, clay is different from hard courts, because on hard courts I know I will, 90% of cases, will win. But in clay, not. I need to work hard on each point. If I'm up 40-Love on hard courts on my serve, I might only lose two of those serve games in the year, which is not true on clay. There are more breaks, bad bounces. Sometimes even the second serve you can't return.

So I don't like clay as much as hard courts because of all that, but I'm in a moment when I accept this. I try to find solutions, and I'm very happy in the zone I'm in right now.