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| October 14, 2019 | by FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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Daniil Medvedev
Press Conference
D. MEDVEDEV/A. Zverev
6-4, 6-1
Q. Congratulations, Daniil. Earlier this week, after your first match, you were asked if you feel invincible and you said no, because you can still lose. But it hasn't looked that way here. Now has your answer changed?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I can say that, well, here I looked invincible this week since I'm the winner. Because, as I say, I don't like to talk about future, because you never know what's future got for you. That's why my answer stays the same.
Okay, this week, yes, I probably was invincible, but for the next upcoming weeks, I'm not sure. And even this week there were some matches that I could have definitely, let's say, lose a set and we don't know how it would have gone.
But I'm here as a winner, so happy about it.
Q. Anything you feel you made differently or better against him to finally break this streak?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think I just became a better player than I was when I played him four times before. For example, it was same against Coric. Before the final in St. Petersburg, I was quite nervous because I lost four matches, I think, I lost against Coric, and the score was I think kind of the same, 6-3, 6-1. Here it's 6-4, 6-1.
I think I became a better player than I was even in the beginning of the year, and that's why some of these results can change like this.
Q. When you say you're a better player, do you mean more consistent, you're more solid? Can you just expand a little on how you are a better player.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I think it's everything together, like something clicked in my game in USA. I don't know why. I think it's just the hard work that I have been doing.
But I started to understand even more about my game, even more I would say about my serve, about my volley, about everything, like kind of what do I have to do when?
That's why many of these matches, as I say, I could have lost at least three sets here but finally didn't lose one. That's why, yeah, crucial moments I kind of know what do I have to do and where do I have to play? If I have to play it with spin or slice or dropshot, stuff like this.
Q. It looks like you have a good chance to finish the year at No. 3 in the world. Do you think sort of the way you're playing just now and look into next year that you could even have a chance of going to No. 1?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's tough to answer this question, because I always say that my first goal is to win every match I play, and that's how I can actually become No. 1 if you win a lot of matches in a row just like I did.
But to be honest with you, when you asked this question right now, I kind of thought, yeah, I don't have that much points to defend till I would say USA next year. But I'm going to try my best to show great results as I did here, and if something like this is going to happen, it's just a big bonus.
Q. Congratulations. Are you going to play Moscow next week, or are you going to give yourself a break? It's your home event.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I'm going there if I catch a flight at 1:00 in the morning. If not, there is one at 11:00. Hopefully I can make it to 1:00. I don't have my bags ready.
But at this moment, I'm not sure. I need to see how my body reacts to the flight, because it's still a long flight, nine hours. I think it's five-hour difference.
It's not easy. Some players did it. I remember Roberto Bautista Agut, when he was in the final, he was playing Moscow. Lost, though, in the first round. So I will have to decide when I'm on-site there, but I'm going there.
Q. Do you think you have changed as a person over the last 11 weeks with your great results? If so, how?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Honestly, I don't think I have changed as a person. As I say, as a tennis player, I maybe started to understand something more about myself, and I'm not really sure what.
As a person, I think I have changed about a year ago, or throughout this year I was changing a little bit, but I don't think that something changed 11 weeks before and that this made the change in my tennis.
Q. Do you think next season you can be tempted to prioritize your Grand Slam titles and change schedule or preparation or not at all?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, of course. We're going to decide with my team, especially with my coach, what schedule do we want to do for next year, because the higher you go in the rankings, you kind of have to decide the schedule.
So maybe even it's going to be almost ready till the end of the season, let's say, but I will try to do my best to show amazing results like I did last six weeks, and as I say, we're going to decide it step by step.
Q. Today all the audience just cheer for the one who played better. It's a good thing. But also, that means maybe they didn't decide which one to follow by or support in the next future years. So what kind of things will you do to prove that you are the best one? Can you talk about the competition between your new generation?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing achievement for us so that first time I think in ten years four players at the age of 23 or under were in the semifinal of Masters. So there was nobody older than 23. That's, I should say, amazing. That's, I think, good for tennis.
That's what we have been trying to do, you know, many people talking about Grand Slams that we need to do better. Well, I tried to do it at the US Open. Hopefully we can continue this way throughout all the tournaments that we have coming. I mean, now there is an interview of me, like, 17 or 18, when I was 17 years old, and I was talking mostly about Russian but also just in our generation in general, and I said that I'm sure that we're going to be good. And that's what's happening. Hopefully we can be only better.
Q. On court you said your wife believes more in you than you do yourself. What more do you need than six finals to believe in yourself?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I don't know what more I need. I need to win 21 Grand Slams to beat Roger (smiling).
Yeah, I said, and it's true, because I have this funny story that one year ago, one year and one month ago, in Washington, before the tournament, I was practicing with Lucas Pouille. I was doing my best. I was a little bit jet-lagged so didn't play my best, but I was trying to win the set, the practice set.
I was losing 6-0. My wife was there, and she was always telling me — I was like at this moment 60 or 70, and she was telling me that I'm going to be top 10 soon, that I can play good and stuff like this. And so during the practice I was looking at her and saying, Good top-10 player here, losing 6-0 in practice.
And now it's her turn. She always remembers me this. So what you said in Washington one year ago, Daniil? Can you remind me?
That's why I think she believes in me more than I do.
Q. You must be a very intelligent guy, because there is lots of calculating in your game style. I read somewhere that you were very good at mathematics and physics when you were in school. Is that true? Do you consider yourself a smart guy?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I was not good in physics, but I was studying in mathematics, physics, lesemme (phonetic). I don't know. In Russian it's called like this. So in school where mathematics and physics is kind of the main discipline. So I wasn't good in physics but I was good in mathematics.
Yeah, I do think I have a smart game play, because I do think that I don't have some arms that other people may have. Like even talking about the serve, I improved it a lot, but for example, I cannot serve 230. I don't know why, but I cannot do it.
So I have to play with my game. And as I say, I started to understand my game much more and trying to mix things up, trying to choose the best shot possible in every situation. I think, if I make these results, it means that I can play smart.
Q. I really have to ask the question, because only you can answer it. For every foreign tennis player, when we translate your name, we try to find the character closest to the pronunciation. Like Roger Federer in China is Roger Federer. Or Nadal is Nadal. For you, it's a big argument here. We have two options. Listen carefully. First one is Mei De Wei De Fu or Mei De Wei Jie Fu. Which one you think is correct?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: The first one, because it actually comes — I remember last year in Tokyo, it was the first choice. I won the tournament. So I kind of remember the way they said my name there all the time.
And I think when I entered the court here, the dicter was saying it the first one. That's why it sounds more similar to me, the first choice, so that's why I go with first one.
Thank you. Nice question. Really funny one.
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