AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2026

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/J. de Jong

7-5, 6-2, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Well done, Daniil. First round, three sets. What were you most pleased with in today's performance?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think in general, I played pretty well, but there were moments of the match where I could have played better, especially probably on my serve.

I felt pretty, not slow the court, not fast. He's a bit of player who likes to, a little bit like me, to bring the ball back from tough positions. Not that easy sometimes.

In general, happy. The most important is to win, three sets, looking forward to try to raise my level.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. There were a few players who had problems with cramps today. Felix had to retire. You have experienced that before in your career. How did you feel the conditions were?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I felt okay. The ending was a bit tough, but I felt my opponent was struggling a lot. Had a good preseason. Worked hard on both my physical and of course mental.

So let's see. I know myself. I can cramp sometimes. Today I didn't, so it's good. I felt fine, so that's the most important.

Q. Daniil, there has been a lot said by some of your fellow players this tournament about the amount of prize money you're receiving. Do you feel like the prize money is acceptable for the amount of revenue Tennis Australia makes from the Australian Open?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think it's been a big, how you say, increase. That's of course great. I think what's good is now, like all the top-10 teams, not only players, because it's a lot of course the teams behind it, and we have a representative now, talking to Grand Slam, because I think, like, in any other sport, the most important is, as you say, the percentage from the revenue. Because the money is big. We're not gonna lie, right? Tennis has good money. But the percentage I think is important from the revenue. That's the most important.

So I don't know if it's even an open number of what the percentage for us is in terms of prize money. And then should be comparable to other sports. So I let our teams handle this. Hopefully it will lead to more transparency between Grand Slams and players, because that's going to make, I think, everyone benefit from this.

Q. It seemed from my perspective that the rallies you were playing were shorter maybe than they were a year ago. Is that how you see it? Is that a conscious effort? Are you trying to keep rallies a little shorter?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it's actually, because I got this a lot of the question in Brisbane, as well, where it was even faster, so it was even easier to play more aggressive.

I think when I played my best, so when I was top 2, top 1, top 3 in the world, I always, like, even Grand Slams, I feel I am always considered kind of a defensive player, because I know how to put the ball in the court, and I can have these 40-shot rallies. But then I would be playing someone like maybe Rublev, Felix, big hitters. When I was in my top shape, I go out from the match, and I'm, like, okay, I hit 40 winners and they hit 20, because I defend and I tried to touch the ball, et cetera. I'm, like, who is defensive, then?

I think when I'm playing good, I am aggressive, especially on my serve. On the return, with my position, it's a bit more tougher to be aggressive, but once I hit a good spot, I try to step in.

That's what I have been doing good this year. When I'm playing well, I am this type of player. So people say that I seem more aggressive than last year, it's great, because last year I was not feeling my game well, and that's when the feeling is that I go too defensive, which I don't want to. So it's great that it feels like this.

Q. Going back to last year, I feel like when things are maybe not going as well for you, you would maybe be frustrated on the court, but you would come to press and maybe not seem as concerned with where things were going. I feel like now, looking back, things are going well, were you more concerned than you were letting on? How do you find that sort of optimism?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a tough question, for sure. In general, outside of the court, I try to be more optimistic than when I am on the court. That's just the way I am, the way a lot of tennis players are.

It's just that they show their frustrations differently. A lot of tennis players are negative on the court. Like you miss a forehand, Oh, my God, my forehand is not going well. Yeah, man, but you're up 6-3, 5-3.

That's me, as well. Again, I had a long preseason. Last year was tough. I'm feeling great with my new team, so I don't really go too much into the past. What happened last year happened, and it's okay. It's part of career, part of life. I managed to finish the year like 12 or 13, which is, to be honest, it's great for many players.

Of course I was not happy. It was first year I was not in Turin maybe after 7 or 8 years. It was still not that bad, and end of the year was better than the year itself.

I made a big push to try to be more positive on the court. So far I'm doing it well, but I'm never the guy to say, okay, now, not anymore. We don't know what's coming, but just trying to be positive on the court as I am in life, actually.

Q. How much of the struggles from last year were your body not feeling all that great? Were there things that you did during the preseason to try and rebuild yourself and get yourself ready for this season, which obviously has started looking pretty good?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I think was more mental plus tennis. So in my tennis, I was not feeling great at times. So mental it's not easy, because you're, like, why my backhand down the line is not going that good, why my serve is not going that good.

And that's where physically you are start feeling bad, because mentally you start a bit pushing yourself, you start to be a bit more tense during the matches. That's why mentally it's a bit tougher.

But again, happy with my team, with my physical coach. Made a big push in the preseason. And of course because it's different people so it's a different work. So I was not used to this work since 10 years, which the work with the Gilles, with Eric, was great, but now it's a bit different so now it's a breath of fresh air, feeling good, I'm feeling great on court physically.

There were tough match against Kamil, and today was a bit of a tough one. I managed it well. All is looking good, and that's of course better like this.

Q. I wanted to ask you whether the players ranked from 3 to, say, 15 are playing about the same level and can win on any day? And what it would take for that bunch to challenge Jannik and Carlos?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, Jannik and Carlos, it's tough. They just play better tennis than other guys. Again, I think what is important is that I played a lot of big names in tennis, and you can beat anyone on a given day.

I'm not shy to say that if we play like 20 matches against Carlos and Jannik, let's say 10 with each of them, I'll probably lose a lot of them, but I'm going to try my best in every of them to win. And again, out of 10 matches, you can win some, I'm not going to say a number, but you can win. They can have a bit of an off day. I did beat both of them in Grand Slams in different tournaments.

So I'm looking for myself to be consistent, because for example, last year was a bad year for me, and I didn't manage to meet them, because they were of course always in the finals and stuff like this. I was losing early. So I didn't even play them.

So for me it's important to hold my ground, play well, get to the point of playing them, because it's like usually quarters or semis, and then I would be happy to take on this challenge. But again, they are best two players in the world. Probably no one right now to challenge them on the consistent base, but one match, they can always lose. Even yesterday, you saw it was a tiebreak. Okay, it's a small step, but everyone can beat them on a given day.

Q. A question about the memory of tennis player. I don't know if you saw, but Alexander Zverev said he remember playing against the guy who won the 1 million point at 14 years old. Are you the kind of player remember the thousand matches you played in your career, or you erase everything?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, I remember a lot of them. For sure, some you forget. I believe I have a good memory. But again, I don't know how to answer better.

I can remember a lot of matches, and maybe I'm going to, like, see someone, and I'm going to be, like, Okay, I know you. Juniors, okay, this match and this. Then sometimes it happened that one guy was, like, We played there and there. I'm, like, I have no idea.

It depends. I have a good memory and I like remembering my matches, but I also like thinking about what's the next match and about this moment.