MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 27, 2025

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/J.M. Cerundolo

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Daniil, congrats on your first win this week here in Madrid. What was the key to the win?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I was practicing well before the match. Match and practice are different story, so tiny bit stress to try to show the game I showed in practice in the match. I managed to do it, played aggressive, played well, happy with my level, and looking forward to the next matches.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How tricky has this been waiting all the way until Sunday to get your first match? Obviously you had a walkover and stuff, but like is that difficult to manage, to wait, hang around all this time?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Honestly, I mean, I don't know for other players, but for me not at all. I mean, you get lucky in a little bit in a way to go into the next round. Maybe some players prefer to play the match to get in the rhythm. But, you know, Laslo is a tricky opponent, so unfortunate for him, and I would prefer to play. But when it happens, you know, you're into the next round, you have one match less to win the tournament, so also a positive thing.

Again, I just continue to practice. Even the day that this happened, because he retired kind of like one or two hours before the match, I went on the practice court, practiced again, and, you know, didn't feel strange. Happy that I managed to play well today.

Q. I'm writing a piece about dropshots, and a couple of years ago you talked about how, after you lost to Alcaraz in Indian Wells, suddenly everyone was hitting dropshots against you. Curious what was that like when you realized that people thought that was a tactic against you. Separately, just how important are dropshots in the game, and is it possible to overplay them?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, I think dropshots are very important. I do use them sometimes. I'm definitely not the best at it on tour, but I do use dropshots sometimes.

Again, for me it's just about, yeah, the touch you have, are you born with it, do you practice it when you're young, I don't know. But, for example, I played against Bellucci this year, I lost, and I practiced against him yesterday because he's a lefty, and Musetti is kind of the same, Alcaraz, they can dropshot from the balls that you are not supposed to dropshot. That's when it's the most dangerous, because you are not expecting it, and they still manage to make a good one.

I kind of laugh at me or Karen, when we dropshot we can make some good ones, but we won't be able to do it on the long ball with a lot of spin, our dropshot will be lob for a smash to other guy.

So I remember this, so when Carlos did it, some guys were doing it. You need to have a good hand. If you don't, it's an easy winner. So dropshots is a good strategy, but it's kind of the same as well, you know, it always feels good to hit a clean volley, but if it's not your best part of the game you try to manage and you don't go serve and volley every point, so, yeah.

Q. In the past we used to see, for example, Roger invite a young up-and-comer to train with him, and in a way it was always people who were going to be really good, and it was almost like the older guys are scouts, kind of scouting how these guys are. Do you find yourself curious, for example, I don't know if Fonseca coming up, and let's say you haven't played him, you would want to practice with him to see what his ball is like? Is that still a thing in tennis or not, because I feel with that era of Roger, Rafa, they used to do that quite a bit.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough to say. I don't do it on purpose, for sure. I practiced with Joao when he was sparring in Turin, and he had already crazy shots, was really, really hitting the ball strong. Everyone who was there out of the top 8 said, Wow, this guy's going to be good, and he is good.

But, no, I mean, I always in a way prefer to kind of see during the match. Because match, even the three set is long, so you have usually time to see what's happening, like, okay, maybe on this shot he will miss, maybe not.

In practice it's a little bit of a different story. I'm pretty sure that the way Joao plays on practice he must be unplayable, because he will just hit with full power, sometime maybe in, maybe not, but I'm pretty sure you're not going to see that in match.

In the match maybe you can see a little bit more where there is a little bit more stress, everyone hits a little bit less through the ball. So I don't do it on purpose, but, you know, sometimes in the academy where I practice, or in Monte-Carlo, we play against young guys who can be at the top some day.

Q. You play Nakashima next, just your thoughts on his game, I think you played once before in Indian Wells. What does he do well? How do you kind of matchup?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it was long ago, and Indian Wells is kind of two times slower than here, so a bit different. But he improved very well, I think especially kind of starting last year I would say second part of the season playing well, a lot of great wins. I think he has a very good serve from what I'm seeing. Kind of didn't practice with him, didn't play with him since long time, so going to be interesting. I just hope that I can show exactly what I showed today, and then it's going to be tough to beat me.

Q. A general one, we see golf and Formula 1 doing these documentaries year on year, Carlos has one this week, following players. I know you didn't love Break Point the first time around, but I just wonder how you would look at it now if they came to you and sort of wanted to follow you behind the scenes on a week like this?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I mean, I saw, for example, how Carlos's one was done, you know, and, damn, it's cameras all over you, all over the day. That's not me. That's just, I mean, I get, like when I'm on court I try to sign a lot of autographs. When I'm, let's say, even if you're in the official hotels or you're out on a holiday, a lot of people camp outside the hotels. And it's fine, I sign, I take pictures.

But like when I'm having dinner, when I'm with my family I don't. I sometimes can be, it's not rude, but people are like, Oh, let's take a photo, when I'm eating dinner. And I'm like, Nope. After dinner's it's okay. So I'm pretty, I can be pretty rude with my personal space.

If I give it to the documentary I'm going to get nuts, like because, especially when you give your permission to them, they want more. They want to film your daughters, they want to film your wife, they want to ask them questions, they want to ask you more about your personal life.

I remember I saw an interview of Jack Harlow, and he said that people around you, not your friends, like fans and everyone, they want to know everything about you. They want to know who you date, who, how, what you have for dinner, if you take your shower for 5 or 15 minutes. But you need to keep something for yourself, otherwise they take all your life away.

So that's probably why I will never do a documentary, but let's see, I never say never.

Q. To me it feels like one of the big developments in men's tennis over the past, say 25 years, is what you do when you're on the run, you know, when you're in the corners and at full stretch. How important is it to kind of have quality, when you're at full stretch now, and does it feel like the line between defense and attack has blurred because everyone can attack from all positions in the court?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, nice question, because I think so for sure what we see that almost, why, I don't know, physical practice, tennis racquets, balls, but almost everyone can defend now. Like, you see Reilly Opelka, you know. Yes, he runs a little bit worse than Carlos or maybe me, but he's still a good defender. He can run, he can rally, and stuff like this. Where maybe 10 years ago guys of my height and Zverev's height couldn't rally at all, they were like serve and volleyers.

So I think just the game develops. We see it in football also. You watch football of 1980, a lot of beautiful goals, but in defense you are like, Wow, the guys were not moving, they were literally like standing on one place. And now you watch, the guys are running back and forth for 90 minutes, it's crazy intensity. It's the same in every sport.

So, yeah, a lot of people defend better and can attack from maybe different positions, and that's why the game is much more physical, and I would think that that's why the game is also more close now days.

Q. Did you see the video of Victor Wembanyama playing football?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I saw it. It was funny, I was like, if he would be a professional footballer, and it's a corner, like you can't guard him. I would love to see it.

Q. That wasn't my question. My question is, generally, what's your mindset for this clay season? Usually you come here and you already feel like you got so many points with hard courts, you had the hard court season you wanted. What's the mindset like for this stretch?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I'm feeling better and better on clay. So the mindset is to try to really do something big. I won Rome, so now I'm much more confident in myself. I had some top wins. Even if we take Monte-Carlo, I beat two really good guys on clay. I was really disappointed to lose super easy to Alex, but he played a great match, but it was still like a good thing to see, okay, next time if I play him, or someone who plays this level on clay, I need to really do much better, and that's what I tried to do here in Madrid.

So no real goals in terms of points or something, but I want to try to play my best tennis, and I know that now on clay I can play almost kind of the same as on hard courts.