BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

January 5, 2026

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/M. Fucsovics

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You sort of said it on court, you dropped serve a couple of times, but outside of that, you must be thrilled with how you looked out there?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I have been playing good in preseason, practicing well, so I'm happy that I managed to put it on the tennis court, because again, guys, we all know how to play tennis, so we all can play well. Sometimes you can play well and lose, but I know that also when I play well, I win a lot of matches. So I'm happy to play well today and to win the match.

Q. I know you aren't going to look too far ahead, you're obviously focusing on Brisbane, but the fact you have been to the final three times at the Australian Open, you're starting to get into a bit of a form again late last year, is this the Grand Slam you feel like you have your best chance of winning?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think, in a way, no, I'm not seeded high, so I can get into a very tough draw early on, but at the same time, when you're in the tournament, you play your best no matter who you got. Sometimes there are upsets, and actually you can be, in terms of seeded, not high seeded but then get a good draw, or you can just beat someone good and get a better draw. So you never know.

In terms of my chances, in this moment of my career, I'm a little bit not anymore the favorite guy to win everything, but I will try to, as fast as possible, be again this guy.

Q. I heard you came up with some suggestions about making the night sessions finish a bit earlier in Melbourne. Did you make those suggestions to Craig and the team in Melbourne?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, and I never will, because it's TVs controlling everything, and I think there is always a reason why it's 7:00 p.m. and not 6:00. But I was just asked a single question, how could we do it different, and I said 6:00 p.m. start would be great, and that's it.

Yeah, I don't think it will ever change, because it's pretty much the same in every Grand Slam except Roland Garros and Wimbledon because the surface is different, but still, Roland Garros actually starts at 9:00, the night session.

So it is what it is. And again, I'm happy to play night session if I need to, and I would not cry about it.

Q. Do you think you'd get a lot of support from players, though? Players, people in the crowd, nasty ol' journos sitting there till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, it's not very good for anybody, really.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think, as I said, it's just for the TV it's good at 7:00 because they have news, whatever, this and that. Because 6:00 is kind of, okay, for those people who come from work, maybe at 7:00 they will miss one set and they can get to the second one, but then they can watch the next full match, whereas you say yourself if, for whatever reason, the two matches go too long, even me, I like soccer, but here I don't Premier League because it's at 2:00 in the morning.

It's pretty much the same probably, people who really love tennis would like to see it at 6:00 because then they are almost sure to watch both matches. Okay, if it goes ridiculously long, I finish at 3:00, I would finish at 2:00. Still better for everyone.

Q. The last year, a lot of players have been complaining about the courts are slower and the balls, and you're obviously one of them. Now that you have a new coach, have you start trying to play in a different way because of that, because of the slower courts?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Well, first of all, I do think that last year, even if I played really bad in my standards, which was finally in many standards would be a good year, but I feel like I didn't complain too much. There were a couple of tournaments I remember, but I felt like I got better in terms of this I kind of accepted it. Actually many courts start to be much faster and the balls start to be faster.

For example, here in Brisbane, it's super-fast court. I don't know what other players said. I felt like US Open swing last year, and I played really bad so I should be sitting here and say the balls were bad, the courts were bad, I think it was pretty fast.

Did I make any adjustments? We constantly make adjustments, but yeah, again, I do think the courts are actually getting faster now. And it's probably the cycle where they go faster, then they go slower, slow, slow, slow, slower, faster, faster, faster, so now we're in the faster phase, and I like it.

Q. A bit of a funny one. If I take you back to last year's Open, the net-smashing incident where you got fined for it, I was at the AO launch a couple of months ago, and they actually used that as part of their promotion. What do you make of that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Damn, they should reduce the fine, then. Promotion means money. I didn't get paid for this (smiling).

I thought it was a GoPro. It was not. It was a bit more expensive camera. I should not do it. But emotions are emotions, and sometimes if you make bad emotions, you pay for it, pay fines, you pay for the camera.

I was always kind of, I feel like, someone who is capable to say, yeah, that was not right, and at the same time, we cannot change the past. That happened. I paid for it. I'm okay to pay for it, like I didn't go to court or something to appeal it (smiling).

So, yeah, I should not do it again. That's the only thing.

Q. You would have seen Novak's decision this morning to step away from the PTPA. What did you make of that? What do you think of the PTPA in general?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I saw it, and honestly, (indiscernible) on Novak, for sure it's kind of a bad look on PTPA, because he was a co-founder, so I don't know the exact decisions behind -- or sorry, like, factors behind his decision. So tough for me to say.

I was always for PTPA, because I do think ATP can improve some things, and they are the monopoly in the sport. Yeah, it's just I, at the same time, I know my priorities and, for example, I was never involved as a decision-maker in PTPA, but I always said I think it's good even if we have maybe more parties trying to not even change something in tennis but trying to look into tennis if there are some things to change.

So that's kind of it. I'm not for it, not against it. I think guys should continue doing their job and try to do it as good as they can.