“It wasn’t an easy year, until Saturday I didn’t train 100%”
On the first day of the tournament there was also space for a meeting with the press for Daniil Medevedev fresco father of a child, Alicia. The Russian appeared cheerful and relaxed, also because of the good news:
Daniil, let’s start with a non-tennis question, how do you feel as a new dad?
“Very well, it is a period in which I am not the only one to have become a father, even Rafa for example has become one; and actually on the tour we are so many that we have become parents by now; person then I do not think it will be a distraction, I will remain motivated in trying to do my best and indeed it will be one more person for which I will try to dare the maximum; and in any case, even if obviously I will be away from home for a long time, I will try to bring the whole family with me; in Australia we will see if it is possible, also due to my wife’s visas, but we will try. “
After the family parenthesis closed, the discussion then moved to purely tennis issues, with the Russian sharing his point of view on the current year:
How do you rate the season so far? What went wrong?
“This has not been an easy year of course, for various reasons; on the one hand I had a hernia operation and the recovery was not easy; at the beginning of the year the final of the Australian Open was lost, even if the disappointment passed. And now this little injury in Astana that threatened to keep me out; I didn’t even know if I would participate, last Saturday was the first day I trained 100%; if I’m here I have to thank my team and the physical trainer. In general it has been a complicated year, I have lost games against opponents who have played very well, like Nick at the US Open and in short, my results have not been able to remain number 1; Carlos and Casper have done better and they deserve to be where they are. In the end, the classification is very simple, it reflects the results on the pitch, so the fact that I lost the number 1 doesn’t really matter to me, in the end it is only a logical consequence of the results; speaking of ranking so now my goal is to close the year in the best possible way. However, the important thing is to look back and have no regrets.
Is it true that you were supposed to go to Basel this year?
“Compared to the fact that I am here and not in Basel I believe that I have not betrayed anyone; one year I played in Basel, another year in Vienna; in the end it is also a matter of negotiations between the tournaments and my agent, to be honest; and then even if it shouldn’t be said Vienna is a more beautiful city than Basel, with all due respect. The organization with the players is excellent and I have a very good feeling with the tournament director Erwig Straka (a kind of totem in the tennis business in Austria).
Ubitennis question: what is your minimum ranking goal in view of the Australian Open, given that you made the final in Bercy and Turin last year?
“Well it’s true that last year I made a lot of points and improving will not be easy, but in reality I don’t do any calculations; there are 4000 points up for grabs between now and the end of the year (500 Vienna, 1000 Bercy, 1500 Turin, ed) so doing better is technically possible (laughing) “
Finally, two other topics covered were the Laver Cup and the question of the war in Ukraine:
“Compared to the Laver Cup it is true that by regulation I should have been statoto, but if I did not go it is not because I refused the invitation. I simply had a problem with my visa to enter England (this year Laver was held in London, ed) and in order not to create problems for anyone, I preferred not to go; finally to the question of respect for war I repeat what I had already said at the US Open: there are good people both in Russia and in Ukraine, I have Russian friends and Ukrainian friends; in the end the important thing is that people respect me for who I am, looking from these external situations. and like tennis I’m lucky to be able to compete, in team sports it’s more complicated; a good solution for Russian athletes could be to compete under an Olympic or ATP flag (in view of the United Cup, formerly ATP Cup).