DAVIS CUP FINALS

December 2, 2021

Daniil Medvedev

Russian Tennis Federation

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/M. Ymer

6-4, 6-4

Russian Tennis Federation - 2

Sweden - 0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Russian Tennis Federation is through to semifinals. You played three singles matches, straight sets, not longer than an hour and a half on court. How confident are you stepping out on the court here?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: To be honest, I didn't serve as good as I wanted to today. Nine double-faults in 6-4, 6-4 is a lot.

As you say, managed to get three points to the team out of three. Won all the sets I had to play, even if some of them were not easy. In general I feel like I'm doing what I have to, playing quite well.

Yeah, the further you are in the tournament, the better you have to play, the better players you will face. That's what I need to do next times, just be even more confident and play even better.

Q. Your serve, you just touched on, let's call it like this: it wasn't great. There were nine double-faults, which is unusual. Only 58% first serve rate. What do you think was the issue today?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I mean, first of all, it's not that easy to serve here because high altitude. So, yeah, the balls, it's tougher to control. That's the first reason, I want to say.

Then we had three days off after our last match. I don't think I ever had three days off in a tournament, so it's not easy to face it. It was nice, we spend a lot of time with the team, very fun. But to come back to play a match is not easy. Feels like a new tournament.

But what I was happy with was when it was in, my first serve, I felt like I had advantage in the point, it was going really fast. Some important aces. Again, both times at 5-4 I was able to close it out with the serve.

Yeah, we'll work a little bit on this tomorrow, have a day to work on this. We're going to do a little bit more second serve than I usually do. I feel like I'm not somebody who double-faults a lot even if I try sometimes to go for it. I don't see that big of an issue.

But, yeah, definitely has to be better than today.

Q. You have always been an extrovert, outspoken. You come from a country which sometimes in the past has had some political issues, like many others to be honest.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: That's nice. I like it (smiling).

Q. I would like to know what do you think about Shuai Peng and what's going on? The WTA took a strong position, deciding to quit all the tournaments in China. There's a lot of money involved. The ATP hasn't been so strong in their statement that my compatriot Gaudenzi sent today. There are many tennis players who are complaining for not having a stronger position. What do you think about it? I know you have your opinions.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, first of all, I don't even want to say the most important, but what we all want is to see that she's safe, which I guess we still cannot know a hundred percent. That's what we are all hoping for. That's what we all want.

What WTA did was definitely a strong decision. At the same time there are so many, let's say, companies in the world, let's talk, outside of W and ATP. Many of them are outside of China and are still working.

I don't want to blame anybody. I feel like there can be different opinions on what to do. I'm sure talking about Andrea, ATP, every player, we all want to see her, to be safe, in China, outside of China, doesn't matter.

I don't want to blame anybody for not doing, let's say, the same thing. Maybe Andrea has a different opinion on what to do in this situation and how to react. What WTA did is a reaction, so ATP did a different reaction. I don't want to say which one is good or bad.

But definitely what WTA did is strong. Yeah, there were a lot of money involved there. It's really strong from Simon to make this decision.

Q. Looking ahead to the semifinals against Germany, how do you see that tie? Do you have to prepare differently playing someone like Jan-Lennard Struff that might come forward?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Definitely. If I talk about myself, probably will play Jan-Lennard. Of course, we never know in Davis Cup, but we're the first in the teams. I had some tough matches against him this year, both on grass. I don't think we played anywhere else.

Definitely big serve, going to the net a lot. I actually watched him against Cameron, almost the whole match, not because we were going to play them but because I was in the room. I really liked the way he played because there were some tough moments. They were 1-0 down. The way he brought the team back was really strong. So expecting a tough battle.

Of course, going to prepare tactically and mentally. As I said, the further we go, the tougher it is. That's what's interesting.

Q. I haven't seen you for a little while, and certainly not since the photo shoot came out. How much of a reaction was the whole James Bond suggestion?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Say it again. The issue of the magazine, you mean?

Q. Yes.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: So what's the question again? Sorry.

Q. How much of a reaction did you get on James Bond?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it was great. Me personally, again, the most important when you do these things is what do you think about this. I really liked the pictures. The photo shoot was amazing because that's the first, let's call it, media-wise thing that we did together with my wife. It was super cool.

Shootings can be long. Shootings can be tiring. Shootings can be boring. I usually have not boring ones, but they can be boring. Not this one. It was super fun, a lot of professionals working on it.

Again, comments can be different. I feel like most of them were positive. It was a great and sensual photo shoot, if we can say it like this. Most important is the opinion of me and my wife, and we really liked it.

Q. Russians have two top-10 players. Also Italy has two top-10 players for the first time. You both don't have the strongest doubles. You're better in the singles in a way. Italy, too. Do you think if it's a disadvantage to play three matches instead of best-of-five because with two top-10 players you can win two or three singles out of five and that's enough, while with this format doubles is 33% of the points?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think, yeah, definitely for let's say those who are stronger in doubles, out of three is an advantage format than out of five.

At the same time I want to talk about Russia, that Karen and Andrey, they were two times in Masters final. They actually beat Novak here in Madrid in doubles when I was not here. So I feel like it was a great doubles.

Now Andrey and Aslan are playing unbelievable, Indian Wells final. They meet Granollers and Lopez in a match, in a way which did not count for us but counted for Spain.

In a way I think Russian doubles is improving, as I can say like this, with singles guys, because they are not doubles players.

Yeah, answering your question, it's definitely a disadvantage for better singles guys to play out of three. At the same time how many ties we saw out of five where there were crazy sensations, especially when it was five sets before. I feel like it still stays the same percentage-wise chance of sensation.

Sorry, upset, not sensation. In Russian it's sensation (laughter).

Q. Irrespective of the stance of the ATP Tour, would you feel comfortable if next year you're competing in China when a fellow player has made sexual assault allegations and they're being ignored and we don't know much about her safety? Would you feel comfortable playing just as an individual?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: First of all, I hope, because we can never know, as Ubaldo said, many countries have political issues, because next tournaments in China are autumn, so hopefully we can have more of - how you can call it - we can see more of a situation evolving, what happens in the country itself, China, what happens with Shuai.

Right now what we have is a person missing, and that's not nice. Hopefully the issue can be solved because we can never know what's going to happen.

That's why I don't want to comment this early because, yeah, if the tournament would be next week, probably nobody would feel comfortable. Again, the tournament is next autumn. I want to come back, yeah, to what Ubaldo said: a lot of countries have different issues, yet we play in most of them tennis tournaments.

Let's see how the situation evolves and what is the result going to be, if we can say like this. I don't like this word, but hopefully it's going to be a positive one.