THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2026

Daniil Medvedev

Press Conference

D. MEDVEDEV/M. Cilic

6-1, 6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Great win. Talking a lot about movement this week on the grass and people adapting to it, learning to fall. You obviously played for many years on grass. How do you think your game has evolved and your movement specifically over those years? Do you think you still have room in certain areas to grow?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: There is always room to improve. Movement in tennis, forehand, backhand, serve, there is always room to improve. It's what I try to do every year. Sometimes I do; sometimes not.

In terms of movement, not easy on grass. I feel like I'm actually not the best mover on grass. I mean, when you see Jannik, Jannik definitely is the best because he somehow manages to slide. And when he slides, it doesn't seem like he's going to break something. We never know.

But in general, if I would slide on grass, I could maybe do it couple of times but I would get injured for sure. And we did see some players get injured, so I think it's not ideal.

But I tried to do my best. I tried to work hard with my physical coach to adapt my movement, my game.

Today, for example, I was moving pretty well. I think it brought me the edge today, as well. Happy about it.

Q. How would you rate the grass game? Would you say it's more tactical on grass?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It depends. In my opinion, tactic is everywhere: Clay, grass, hard. It's a different tactic, of course, but it's everywhere.

But the only thing I would say that maybe is a bit different on grass to other surfaces, where serve is important on all the surfaces, but probably on grass even more. It's like really crucial to hold your serve. Whenever you lose it, you might lose a set.

I would say the biggest difference on grass is that you can play a good match and lose. I mean, it can be the case everywhere, but I feel like on other surfaces if you're really better than your opponent in many components, you'll have much better chance to win, whereas on grass, he can be worse on everything but if he serves well and gets to the tiebreak, he can beat you. I think that's the biggest difference on grass.

Q. Obviously all the Grand Slams are different, but there is a way that people talk about Wimbledon as sort of the magic and hallowed grounds. First time you came to Wimbledon, did it live up to the hype? Since then, what is it about the grounds you find special or different from the other slams?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, it's amazing. First time I came here was juniors. It was crazy. It was my first main draw at a junior slam. I played quallies at Roland Garros and lost and played main draw here and it was unbelievable. I mean, unreal experience to see everything for the first time.

But even as a pro, to come here, first of all, I like how they keep it out of the public till the first week, because it becomes only Grand Slam where you walk around the courts. So you can see us players go to Aorangi usually, from Centre Court, really experience it in a way as a fan would, where we cannot do it really when the fans are there, because you do couple of steps, and you would be pretty much surrounded by people. So this is a lot of fun.

And in general, the way it's decorated, I would say, the flowers everywhere, the grass, the grass is clean, you know. It's pretty amazing.

Q. I want to ask you about one of your biggest rivals, Stefanos Tsitsipas' drop in the rankings, do you think he will be the player he once was, especially now he did a big change in his coaching team?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I saw this yesterday. Look, you never know, but he definitely once you were there, you have that ability. So I would not be surprised if one day, when I say 'one day', you never know. In two weeks, in one year, in five years, he wins a slam or he's in the semis or something like this.

Because he can play, he can make great shots, great serve, great forehand, great volley, stuff like this. So for sure, we see that he was struggling a bit with his tennis. But again, I would not be surprised if any given moment he finds something back and just makes a great results in a row.

Q. How do you do the transition from clay to obviously grass, totally different style? Do you work on special things before coming here? Did you expect a harder match since you were playing a Grand Slam champion, obviously?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, first of all, I will be honest, I hate changing surfaces. That's why a lot of the times, it depends on Roland Garros, of course, but I try to play the first tournament which I usually play 's-Hertogenbosch, is because I know that the first tournament on grass, like is tough for me. So I need time to adapt, and usually I play better in the second tournament or Wimbledon.

But in general, you work a lot physically, because it's completely different surface in terms of movement, in terms of the muscle that are working, so you need to be really careful with injuries.

And tennis-wise, in my case, what works well on grass is just you play as much as you can, and like this you adapt. First day on grass, you feel like there is no way in two weeks you're going to be playing good tennis. But step by step after couple of days, you feel better. So in my opinion, that's repetition.

Q. Also about adjustments. 1 meter 98, you are the tallest Grand Slam champion ever on-site alongside Del Potro, Cilic, and Sascha. Here you have the lowest bounce. How do you work to be that tall, to make it efficient?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, first of all, with the physical coach, for sure, because as you say, injury-wise, it's not easy, because a lot of times, you know, it's not a natural position to be that low, as we are on grass. So you need for sure strong muscles around your body to be able to support this.

You play one match, it's good, but if you want to get to the final or you play, like, here it's seven matches, other tournaments maybe five, and if you don't work properly, you're going to get, I don't know, back problems or some other problems being that low.

But also, it's about repetition. Again, it's the more you do, the more your body and eyes adapt to this low bounce and the more you're ready to do it.

I forgot to answer your question about Marin. I like the way I play, so I think the way -- I don't know what he said, because of course I don't want to be here and say, Wow, he played unbelievable and I played even better. But I felt like it was a good-level match where I managed to have the edge in important points, put a lot of pressure on him, and I was pretty happy about my level.

Q. The stats say that the average ball speed and the average pace of ball is bigger now than ever before on the ATP. Harder and more spin. As a player, do you feel that, like from the start of your career till now, do you feel that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's super tough, because it's so relative because, for example, when I come here in Wimbledon, it's the case of any other player, straightaway we practice first day and everyone goes, Oh, the grass maybe is higher than last year, it's slower, it's faster. For someone the balls changed. Someone thinks that, I don't know, his racquet is not the same anymore. So it's all very relative.

I think in general, the level, if we take the full top 100, I'm not getting into this discussion of top 10, top 20, which one is stronger now or 10 years ago, but I think the top 100 is probably stronger than when I came on tour.

Probably that's part of why the average speed is higher, because maybe guys, let's say from 70 to 100 probably play better tennis, hit stronger. And also in general, what you see from young guys is that they rip the ball. Probably that's the way young school works now. I don't know. Maybe, I don't know, 10-year-old English coaches say hit as fast as you can. But a lot of youngsters, they rip the ball. Again, so they come on tour and the average goes higher.

Q. In a way, do you think because players hit harder, in a way, maybe? Because I have heard many former players saying that it's less tactical now, because they hit very hard. Do you agree with that?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's a very tough question to answer, because I was laughing the other day with my coach, Thomas, who was a player before, and we were discussing something. And I was, like, What do you think about it? A bit in the same manner, I'm not going to go into detail, but a bit in the same manner.

I was, like, Look, this is not the case. We were discussing something. And he goes, Daniil, when you're going to be 45, so it's like seven years after you finish tennis, I'm going to come to you and ask, How do they play now? You'll go, No tactic, they play bad. Nobody's trying hard anymore, et cetera, et cetera.

I think there is tactic always. For example, the grass changed. From what I heard that 20 years ago, you could not play from the baseline, because it was a different surface.

So you had to go serve and volley. Did it make it more tactical? Because from what I hear from the guys before, they said if you don't go to the net, you lose.

Is it tactical? I think no, because then it becomes less tactical because you just do serve and volley and that's it. It becomes who has a better serve and volley wins Wimbledon.

So I don't know. I think there is still a lot of tactics, and yeah, that's all I have to say. I think there was a lot of tactics before and a lot of tactics now. And in general, in any given sport, should not too much compare before and now. Just enjoy, and let the best win.

Q. I'm curious if you read much about Vondrousova's case, getting banned for four years for refusing a doping test. Wonder if there is any scenario where you have ever considered refusing to do a doping test or if that doesn't enter your mind?

DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, doping cases in general as we saw in the last couple of years, super tough. Every case is a different story, every case is taken independently one by one. I said something once, and I still believe it, that if you really somehow want to, like, I don't think anyone in tennis would really want to dope or something, I think you can find a way. And I do believe that most of the guys who get disqualified or get caught didn't do anything.

But, look, I feel sorry for Marketa, but I don't know the details exactly from all the sides involved. I can say from my side that you do get stressed when you, you know, when you get a call to your door. You're like, Okay, lucky, I put the right time. Okay, who is this? A guy who takes doping. Okay, come in. You never say no. But I can understand maybe she was in a bad spot, as she said, and she got scared or something.

I don't know what to say. In general, doping control is not an easy thing to handle. That's all can I handle.