DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

February 27, 2026

Daniil Medvedev

Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/F. Auger-Aliassime

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: First question from...

Q. Daniil, one step away from the repeat of the 2023 finals against your best man, Andrey. In what way do statistics matter when you prepare for such matches against, for example, today's rival because a lot of the stats were quite comparable? Then when we look at the conversion of first and second serves, there's a huge difference. Do you somehow find a way to work with the stats to achieve such results?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: That's a very tough question because I think stats can be helpful and can be misleading. Meaning, for example, I never worked with someone - but there are now guys who work with you, provide you with all the stats, meaning Felix hit a thousand backhands last year, that's how much he missed, that's the shots he missed, et cetera. I never did. My coach did a bit, ex-coach, Gilles.

I'm more a fan of kind of sport as it is, meaning me trying to figure out how to win. We're playing tennis, not poker. I have a friend playing poker. They're all about percentages, meaning if he lost having a good hand, he lost the whole tournament, he's kind of not disappointed with himself because he put himself in the position, where throughout the year he might win more, probably win more than he loses.

I feel like in tennis it's a bit different. It's about one point at a time. For example, everyone has a preference on the break point, especially more break points are on the advantage side, maybe to serve somewhere.

You can arguably say Novak prefers the T. How many matches, maybe less, but he goes wide, makes an ace, and that was the only break point you had that set.

Stats can be helpful. The biggest, for example, stat is first-serve percentage in. Super important. The higher it is the better it is. Then also sometimes you have to go with the game itself because otherwise you're completely screwed by the stats.

Q. You almost won everything in your career, Grand Slam, Davis Cup, Masters 1000s.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yes.

Q. But you never won a tournament twice. How special would it be to win here?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It would be cool. It would not be something crazy. If it would be maybe US Open, that would be a bit crazy.

Every tournament I play I try to win. I find it even very surprising that I never won somewhere twice because I kind of now, especially in my career, tend to repeat the tournaments. I start to know what tournaments I like. I just repeat them year in, year out.

But I always said, look, I tried. Tomorrow I'll try to make it two somewhere. I will not be disappointed if the streak ended.

Just going to feel great to win the tournament. It's not going to feel any more special. Just a bit fun to win finally a second one somewhere.

Q. Coming back to Dubai, you mentioned you are picking and choosing which tournaments you like to play at, why do you like playing in Dubai?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I like the city. The tournament is nice, organized. I actually said this today to my coach. I think last probably four times I played here, I kind of played good. Last year I lost in the quarters, which is still not the first round.

It's a cool tournament because even if you lose first round, you're disappointed, but you can spend a week in Dubai and prepare for Indian Wells. It's great.

I'm most of the time in the position to just have the flight almost straight after the match, so it's great as well. But the organization of the tournament is great. Spend time with the family before the tournament is great as well. I just love it.

Q. This question doesn't directly relate to you. I was wondering if you thought a single-handled backhand could win in this era of Alcaraz and Sinner?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think everything is possible. I generally believe if you take 10 kids -- sorry.

If you make someone play with a one-handed backhand when he's young, I would put it more at a disadvantage than advantage. But then you have unique players like Roger was, or like Carlos and Jannik are in their way without the one-handed backhand.

It is possible. You never know. There is going to be one guy comes in and smashes the one-handed backhand all the time.

For example, I felt like Dominique Thiem, when he was playing his best. When he was not playing his best, you could target the backhand, wait for some errors, some slices. When he was playing at his best, I felt like his backhand was better than his forehand, and his forehand is pretty good.

Everything is possible. But in general I think in today's game it's more of a disadvantage.

Q. Obviously you don't know yet who you're playing tomorrow. Can you talk about both players.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, against Andrey, it's just going to be fun. First of all, it's a repeat. I don't think we ever played in the final anywhere except here, so it's going to be even funnier.

He's playing well. I watched a bit the matches. It was always in the evening. He's playing well now. Tallon same. Tallon beat Jakub yesterday, and Jakub is on fire right now.

Both amazing players. I lost against Tallon here last year. I beat Andrey three years ago here. I know them both pretty well. I beat better Andrey. I will just enjoy their match and get ready for the winner.

Q. Five years ago you won your first Grand Slam. You were making Grand Slam finals on a regular basis. You're basically the most dangerous man in the world of tennis for a few times. Does a certain few Grand Slam final tough losses make you lose a little confidence or does not the best result, not the usual result... How do you approach that part of your career?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it really depends the moment of your life when it happens. I basically lost five Grand Slam finals. It's a bit of experience (smiling).

Some I lost were, like, honestly a boost of confidence to even play better after. I won some tournaments straight after losing the final. Some were a bit tougher, where for a different reason I kind of took it worse, like on myself, maybe a bit too hard on myself, et cetera.

Right now, to be really honestly, if you ask me to remember, I will start to remember some points from there, maybe some moments I could do better.

In general, I really don't care much. I don't remember them because I'm very focused on I'm 11 in the world now, how do I get back into the top 10, how do I try to get back into these Grand Slam finals.

If I only think about the ones I lost, it will not lead me anywhere and I will have regrets. I have no regrets I feel like in my career. That's it.

I hope I can have more finals to discuss, if it's a win or a loss. Hopefully it can be a win.