DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

February 25, 2025

Daniil Medvedev

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/J. Struff

6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How are you feeling physically in terms of mental health as well?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Honestly physically 100%. Maybe it's not higher than 99. I was feeling well at the end of the second set. The match was pretty long. That's a good sign.

In terms of tennis, yeah, you need a little bit to get back into the rhythm after a couple days without practice, a couple of hectic days. I could practice like fully normally only yesterday. It was a really rough day yesterday, hot and humid.

Yeah, just need to get back into the rhythm. Happy that I won and looking forward to my next match.

Q. When you face some unexpected losses, how do you go back and recalibrate, assess your game, build that confidence?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, I think in a way that's easy for me. The only thing that is very tough is to regain your confidence in terms of your tennis, in terms of your shots. If not, sensations or how you call it, upsets can happen in any sport.

Usually what happens is that the favorite doesn't play his best game, the other team/guy, in any sport it's the same, plays better than usual, then there is an upset.

It's nothing unusual. It's just the matter of trying to find your level because, again, I know that when I play my best tennis, upsets happen less, and there are more wins and more finals, et cetera. That's the only thing that I'm trying to find.

Again, I think I found it in Doha. Unfortunately did not continue it. Will try to find it again in Dubai.

Q. Does family play a crucial role for you in those moments?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: In terms of tennis, I'm not sure family plays let's call it the crucial role. But family's important. If you feel happy, family helps anyway. I would even say more when you lose. You come back to your beautiful family, and you're a happy person. That's a good feeling.

If you lose and then maybe you are for whatever reason depressed or not happy about something in your life, it's even tougher because you come from losing to something that is tough. This helps a lot.

Yeah, when you win a lot, it's also a good feeling. I only have good feelings anyway.

Q. In terms of the immediate goals you've set for yourself, what is it for you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would say my immediate goals are to, as I say, find back my level. That's when I can be in a way unstoppable, playing well. You save break points, you immediately close out on the opportunities you have.

I do think I was not far in many, many situations this year maybe where it could have turned my side and maybe something would be different in the next match. Australian Open, Rotterdam. But we never know. That's what I'm trying to find.

Again, I was able to 100% find it in Doha. Now it's time to find it here in Dubai.

Q. The five-setters that you played in the Australian Open, how much of a toll was that on you?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: The second one was tough, especially we started again at 11. We finished at 3:30. I was actually surprised in a good way that he won the next match because it's tough when you're 19 years old and you beat a top player, and the next match is usually tough. That shows actually that he has a huge potential to be able to pull this off.

For sure mentally you're destroyed. You lose second round. I'm not used to it. Tough match. Served for the match. What else? A lot of negative things.

As I say, you come back to your beautiful family, you have a good time, then you come back to the practice court. First few days are horrible because you have zero confidence in yourself. Then you start working again and try to do your best. Things are going to get better.

Q. Do you know Bear Grylls?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Kind of a little bit. I know who he is. I won't be able to tell you more.

Q. He was in the stadium today watching. He did an episode with Federer. Curious if you knew, seen any of his shows?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Absolutely loved watching, how you say, the TV about animals when I was young. Now I have less time, so I don't have 10 hours during the day to watch otherwise I would watch this also. I have other priorities.

All these people that achieved a lot of things in their profession, if we could call it, it's always interesting to discuss. The only thing, it's interesting to discuss when they like tennis. Like this, it's a little bit of a back-to-back talk. They ask you about tennis, maybe stuff that interests them. You ask them about things they do.

If one of the people is not interested in either what you do or you're not interested in what he does, then it's a horrible conversation.

As I say, I like animals in general, so I would love to talk about him one day.

Q. You play Giovanni next. Huge serve. Talk about what it's like when someone can hit 235 on the second serve?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: For sure it's not easy. For sure I played some guys like him. They're all different. They all have their own style. Someone likes to play more from baseline. Someone goes to the net more.

For sure practiced with Giovanni I think one time. We did practice three, four years ago. But he is not the player he is right now. So will be interesting.

For sure the most important thing is not get broken yourself because it's a little bit the tricky part, then try to break him. Let's see how it goes.