MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 2, 2024

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

J. LEHECKA/D. Medvedev

6-4 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can you explain what happened and what's your injury?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I felt on, it was a return when he served and volleys and I don't know if I felt it on the return or on the dropshot, but when I ran, I wanted to run faster and faster during the movement, and suddenly felt my hip, like, kind of blocked. And I couldn't sprint like when you strain a muscle probably or have a spasm, which is very tough to know which of the two.

So then working with the physio, and then asked him if I could make it worse. He said if it's a tear, then yes. If it's a spasm, no. I tried to go to play, and my mind was not letting me to, like, go full, so at the end of the set, I was, like, if I want to continue, I just try to sprint to the net. If I don't feel anything, I try to go a little bit more full and see how it goes, and when I sprinted I felt pain. So I was, like, no, no need to continue.

Now I cannot say more. Hopefully for sure tomorrow or day after, because normally you need time, MRI, et cetera, to see what it is, and if it's something five days, two weeks, I have no idea. So cannot tell you more.

Q. Today Jannik withdrew. You retired. Carlitos has problems with his forearm. All of you had good results in Indian Wells and Miami. Do you think there is a relationship with this?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Very tough to say, because I think, you know, injuries is part of the sport. And for sure the better you play, the more matches you play, the more risk you have of getting tired in your body, and when you get tired, having injuries.

The turnarounds between surfaces is fast. If you play good in Miami, you have what, maybe four, five days before Monte-Carlo to practice on clay.

At the same time now it's not anymore Monte-Carlo, so you have already some practice on clay. So tough to say, but I would generally say the better you play, the more risk of injuries you have.

Yeah, I feel like I usually take good care of my body. Why it happened, never know. Cold weather, body, maybe not easy. Yeah, I don't think any of our injuries are connected to something.

Q. Do you think that Rome is more risk for you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Right now, definitely yes, but I need to see the images, speak to my team. Yeah, because sure would be good to come back there after winning last year, but just need to see what it is, because right now I basically don't know if it's very serious, just serious, or not serious. No idea.

Q. Had you some pain in the few days before in your previous match or it was just today, this night?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Just today, because, you know, as I say, the tightness in the body, we always have it. I had two three-setters. Match against Sascha was pretty tight also on the body. So for sure I felt tight here and there, but no pain.

I went to play full, and I'm a bit disappointed because I felt good in the beginning of the match, like, I felt that I entered the match well. Well, pretty fast it was, in a way, was over for me.

So that's a pity, because it was the first match against Jiri who is playing very good now, so I was interested to play him and to try to see how the game is going to be.

But, yeah, no pain before the match.

Q. You just mentioned how the better you play you're probably more at risk of injury. There has obviously been this debate this week about the two-week Masters. First of all, what do you think of them? Do you think that could contribute to the injury risk, playing more?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think by logic should be the opposite, because you have days off and stuff like this, and me personally, I like this two-week format. I mean, it's not two weeks. It's one-and-a-half. I like it for, let's call it personal reasons, I like when there is a day off.

I like that it brings more importance, in my opinion, because then you kind of know if want to do well on tour, you kind of have to play these Masters, and the other tournaments, you have to choose wisely, because if you play good on two-weeks' Masters, there is not many weeks where you can add the tournaments.

So me personally, I like it, and I don't think injuries would come from this format.