THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 12, 2024

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/D. Medvedev

6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Daniil, great match out there today. You were just on the wrong side. Just giver us your thoughts on the match.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough, tough match. I mean, Carlos plays well. I feel like the plan I came up with was working not so bad. Like, the match was much closer than last year.

But he's, yeah, tough to play. I felt like I was serving good, definitely not worse than the other matches. Only five aces. He seemed to touch almost every ball on the court, like running well. I made some good points. I could have finished some maybe at the net, but didn't manage to do it.

But yeah, in my opinion he played much better than all the opponents I faced here before, and hence I lost. Yeah, not much more to add.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What were your tactics going into the match? You mentioned about coming to the net. You came to the net 53 times, 60% of those points you won. So your thoughts on that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, as I say, a lot of points at the net I feel like I could have done better from one side of view, and from the other side of view I think there maybe one, two, three players, him, de Minaur, maybe someone like Tommy Paul, who could get to these balls. The volleys were not terrible. Yeah, he's very fast. Good on the passing shots.

That was not the plan to come to the net. It's grass court, so the plan was to not give him too much free time because when he has free time, he hits a winner. So to try to press him...

Again, I feel like the plan itself, I was playing well and just it was not enough anyway.

Q. We spoke the other day about the challenge of playing Sinner and then Alcaraz. You talked about just you want to keep fighting against them. Is that kind of what your take-away from this is when you think about how you can turn some of these tough defeats into wins?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: 100%. Look, grass is not my favorite surface, but I was playing pretty well here these two weeks. Pretty well last year.

The match against Carlos was much closer than last year. Last year I went out from the match and I was, like, Wow, that was a semifinal, 1 hour 30 or something like this. Very fast. He crushed me off the court.

Today I felt like that was not the case. I felt like I was much closer, was just a little bit worse in some important points, important moments.

But experience. All of this is experience. Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, some other guys, tough opponents, tough players.

I'm going to try to raise my level next time I play Carlos, try to do something new, something better. Yeah, definitely have more chances on hard courts, but Indian Wells - not Indian Wells, something different.

Q. How tough was it playing two of the three at the same event?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: How hard you said?

Q. How tough is it?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think in a way it can even help you. When you play one of them and then you play the other one, because you got the kind of same intensity, same meaning of the match, it can help you in the next one because you are already ready for this level.

I think it did help me in the match was Jannik, against Carlos today. That's why I was straightaway there, won the first set.

It's tricky because they are two maybe of the best players in the world, like two of three. From one point of view, you don't want to play them. You want to play someone else. If you have to play them both, it helps to play one of them first I think.

Q. In the first set where the umpire judged the ball wasn't up on your side, what was your view of it? What did you say to her?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I don't know if it was double bounce or not. I thought no. That was tricky. The thing is that once long ago Roland Garros against Cilic I lost, and she didn't see that was one bounce. So I had this in my mind. I thought, again, against me.

I said something in Russian, not unpleasant, but not over the line. So I got a code for it.

Q. Was it the small cat?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would say small cat, the words are nice, but the meaning was not nice here. The meaning was better (smiling).

Q. On that same incident, did you have any concerns you might be defaulted because of what you said?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Not at all because, as I say, I didn't say anything too bad.

The thing is that I think it would be so much easier with a challenge system to just... The challenge system shows a bounce. So if there was a bounce, it would show it. Then if we use it, we would never have this situation. So I don't know why don't we use the challenge system for double bounce, the Hawk-Eye or whatever.

Q. I would like to know how it is to be back on clay at this point of the season?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough.

Q. Are you at peace with clay now?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's going to be a new experience because I always said I don't like to change surfaces. Even coming back to hard courts, it's not easy for me. I need time to adapt.

Here I'm going to play straightaway Olympics on clay. I don't know how it's going to be. It's not going to be easy. I'm not going to have much preparation because I managed to do good tournament here.

I have no idea how I'm going to handle it, if I'm going to be in peace, angry, or something like this. But, look, it's one tournament. I have my goals in my mind, doubles, mixed doubles is one of them, one of the big goals because, honestly speaking, I don't think I'm the favorite to win in singles or even to get a medal, but I'm going to try.

I'm going to go there, enjoy it, and try my best on clay and then on hard courts after.

Q. Carlos seems to be developing a bit of a reputation with the five-set record. He has 12 wins and one defeat.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Wow.

Q. That kind of answers my question a little bit.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I didn't know.

Q. When you go two sets to one down against Carlos, is that in your mind? Is that a thing in the locker room, Carlos' record over five?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I didn't know it. I was not thinking about it. When it was two sets to one, I was just trying to fight for the fourth set and make it into five sets.

I think in long story, the statistics are always important because, well, it means that, yeah, he had 13 matches on five sets, and he won 12.

The same time, when you play him and you are even two sets to love it down, it could be you that's going to make it 12-2, or if he is 18-1, 18-2, whatever, something like this.

I would not think it's something like a reputation, but the reality is that he is also very strong physically. So even today when there were a couple of tough points and maybe I could have lost my breath a little bit and maybe dropped my level, it always drops by 2% when you play a tough opponent, and usually against other opponents maybe their level drops by 5%. Carlos doesn't drop his level. That's why he is also a very good player.

Q. You mentioned at the start that it seems like he touches almost every ball. Over the course of the match, like when you say that even when you are hitting a great shot, he'll be there, does that kind of leave a mark? Does that affect what you're doing on the court?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: A lot. It makes you miss easy shots at the end. And that's what I do many times. Not as fast as Carlos, but I try my best.

The more you know the more your opponent hits a great shot or I hit a great shot against Carlos, and then suddenly you receive of a passing shot the next one. You're going to try to hit it better. You're going to doubt, am I going to go to the net or not?

I remember there was particularly one, I hit a good smash, and he still made it. I had a very easy volley, but I overplayed it just a little bit. Yeah, because you are always questioning what's the best shot, do I go almost for the line or not? It's not easy to play such players.

Again, that's why we also see so many highlights of him because, yeah, that's what he does.

Q. This is somewhat related, but with Carlos, is he harder to change tactics against during the course of a match than maybe other opponents are?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, in a way because the thing is that he imposes his game so much, and he has the ability to do it because of his power, that, as I say, I feel like I was doing the right thing, and then sometimes by doing the right thing, I would still get three winners in the game on my serve, and that's a break.

Yeah, you questioning yourself a lot because, you know, like the return position, like today I returned pretty close to the line, I would say. I broke him three times, but there were two sets where I didn't, and no break points.

So I was questioning myself during the match, do I go a little bit further back? I don't think it will work against him. At the same time from the close was also not working. Yeah, you're questioning yourself. That's part of the challenge. And when you manage to beat him, it makes it even more beautiful.

Q. Obviously Carlos is a great, great talent. You are one of the few people who have played him and the big three. Tough question, but can you step back and briefly compare Carlos at this stage to those three icons?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, yeah, the thing is I played big three when they were let's call older, over 30. A bit different.

They're all different, all different in their own way, in their game. I feel like you can't even, yeah, take something from one and compare to another.

So Roger plays on the line. Hits beautiful technique shots, goes to the net. Novak plays also on the line, but completely different. Amazing defense, like pinball player where the ball comes so back faster to you. Rafa, completely different. He can stay ten meters behind, but he is going to run to every ball and banana shot, lefty.

Carlos, I don't think he has anything from them. It's different game style. I think where Carlos is different from many players, we all have a little bit our preferences, someone prefers defense, someone prefers counterattack, someone prefers to be super aggressive. He can do all of it.

He can sometimes slice, even bad slice, and then run and try to win like this. Then when you hit him many times, when guys do this, you can play with them. You can hit them the easy shot back, and they don't want to attack, but that's not Carlos. Hit him easy shot, you know it's over for you. That what makes it tough.

Probably in my career he's toughest opponent I have faced. But I have time, I have time to try to do better.

Q. You mentioned before about how you don't like changing surfaces. What is the hardest change for you? Is it the clay to grass or the hard... What do you find is hardest?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Clay to grass is very tough for me because it's so, so different. Usually the first tournament I play on grass, I cannot hit a forehand (laughing). It's so fast. It's sliding through the court. Where on clay, it's bouncing high. It's completely different.

For me, the change of surfaces is just like the eye adaptation, meaning I play here Wimbledon, even today against Carlos, my body, my eye, my brain is connected to what happens on the court. Whereas, when I change surfaces for week or two, I cannot connect. That's where the mistakes come from. That's where the frustration comes from.

As I say, it's going to be interesting for me to see how I adapt from grass to clay because it's probably the only time I'm going to do it in my life. I only done it once, but I was 18 years old, so it was different.

Yeah, so for me it's not easy, but I'm someone who fights. I'm going to try to practice well and go for it.