Tennis - Australian Open 2025 - Daniil Medvedev : "I would like to become again a disruptor"

Tennis Actu TV

10/01/2025

La semaine a été chargée pour Daniil Medvedev, émotionnellement comme physiquement. Devenu papa pour la seconde fois mardi, du côté de Nice, le Russe est arrivé après tout le monde à Melbourne, où il n'a pas eu le temps de prendre ses repères qu'il était déjà devant la presse, vendredi pour le Media Day. Numéro 5 mondial et triple finaliste perdant à l'Open d'Australie, dont une remontada cruelle subie en 2024 par Jannik Sinner, il veut se donner une chance de "perturber" Carlos Alcaraz et Jannik Sinner, tout en restant très détendu.

Photo : @AustralianOpen

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00:00First of all, congrats, Daniel, on your new family member.

00:06How do you feel after arriving in Melbourne?

00:08Great. I feel in a great place, very happy.

00:12I mean, life of a dead on tour is that next day the baby is born

00:17and the next day you're on the flight to Australia,

00:19which takes like 24 hours, a 10-hour difference.

00:22But that's fine with me.

00:24Like I always said, I like tennis, I like travelling.

00:27So I'm feeling great before the start of the season and looking forward.

00:31Great. Questions, please.

00:36Yeah, go for it.

00:38Happy New Year. What do you think of yourself coming to this with no tournament prep,

00:43obviously, and then what was your preparation able to be like

00:46while you were home waiting for this child?

00:48Honestly, the preparation was great.

00:50I don't want to make like too big of a statement,

00:52but I felt like that was one of the best pre-seasons I made.

00:55And I had quite some time.

00:57I think we made five weeks, which is a lot.

01:00And to be honest, I don't see myself like I was thinking about this year

01:04because last year I made the same.

01:05I know no tournaments.

01:07And in my opinion, it starts too early.

01:09Like especially I don't celebrate Christmas the 25th.

01:13But in Russia, it's more important like the 31st.

01:17And the first one is like very important.

01:19Like that's where Santa Claus comes in Russia and gives you presents, etc.

01:24And I feel like I'm at the age where I just want to be at home.

01:29So I don't see myself ever playing something before Australian Open

01:32because I really like to spend this time with my family, which is growing.

01:37So, yeah, I think the season starts too early,

01:39but I feel great because it gives me extra time to practice.

01:43I think we're going to see a lot of interesting things from me

01:45and I'm looking forward to it.

01:49You're known as one of the great problem solvers on tour.

01:52Andy Murray is one of the other ones.

01:54Obviously, he's now solving problems from the coaching box.

01:57I wonder if you've ever thought what it would be like to sit in a coaching box

02:00and try and do what you do on court from there rather than from the baseline.

02:05How different do you think it would be?

02:07And what do you think his impact on Novak Djokovic would be like?

02:10Yeah, about the impact on Novak, tough to say because Novak...

02:13The thing about coaching Novak is that he's so strong that imagine he wins.

02:17We're like, is it because of Andy or is it because it's Novak?

02:20So, I never know, but it's a great partnership, I think, in terms of everything,

02:24in terms of even energy, media-wise, tennis-wise, growing like tennis.

02:32It's great.

02:33Imagine Messi would become the coach of Cristiano Ronaldo.

02:37It would be strange.

02:39But about me being a coach, look, I have no idea what I will do after my career.

02:45It can be anything.

02:46It can be related to tennis or not.

02:49I heard from everyone that it's pretty stressful to be in the box

02:53because in a way you cannot control what your player is doing there.

02:57So, it's a much tougher feeling, and I can feel it when I play team competitions

03:01and you really want your teammate to win.

03:03Like, when he misses, you're like, come on, do better.

03:06It's not the same when you're on the court.

03:08So, it could be pretty fun.

03:12I remember last year a lot of the talk coming in here was about Yannick and Carlos,

03:17and yet you still managed to get to the final,

03:19and you were pretty pleased with your position as a disruptor in the sport.

03:23I'm just wondering, do you still feel like a disruptor,

03:27or has maybe some of your confidence been at all dented

03:31by some of the results you've had against those guys?

03:33Well, I would say a bit less.

03:35Why? Because I didn't manage to last year, except Australia Open.

03:38I was less of a disruptor because Yannick and Carlos were beating me a lot of times,

03:43and so a lot of tournaments I was getting to the good stages,

03:46but not being able to beat them.

03:47So, I would like to become again, let's call it the...

03:51I don't even know this word, but the disruptor.

03:54Because it means that I will be able to get to these later stages and win them,

03:58because, again, at this moment they're clearly the favourites, and that's normal.

04:03And that's, you know, I try to develop something and let's see if it works,

04:10because, as I say, last year I could see that it's not enough,

04:13what I'm doing against them.

04:14So, I'll try to improve.

04:18Again, looking back to last year a bit,

04:20obviously you started the tournament with an incredibly late finish,

04:23and given that and kind of what that meant for the next few days,

04:27or even maybe the rest of your tournament,

04:29I wondered, will you be requesting not to play last at night again?

04:34Does that affect anything for you this year?

04:37No, I'm OK, because I probably like to play more at night than in the morning.

04:42I prefer even last, second after seven, than to eleven start matches.

04:46So, I'm OK, I got super unlucky with the tie-break of Helena and Anna.

04:51They played, what was it, 22-20, I think, or something crazy,

04:56I don't even remember the exact score, but it was like a 40-minute tie-break.

04:59So, I got super unlucky, and my match was also long, which could happen.

05:04So, I'm OK to play second after seven.

05:06Again, me personally, I think that the night match should start at six,

05:09so we don't have these problems,

05:10because then I would not finish at 3.30, but 2.30, and it's a big difference.

05:15But it's OK, again, I would not request,

05:17because I don't want to play at 11, I would better play at night.

05:23How much are you driven by the ranking and, you know,

05:27having been at the top and been right there at number two,

05:31and now sort of dropped down out of the top four?

05:34Does that go into your mind at all,

05:37especially as you approach the beginning of the year?

05:39Do you set goals in terms of where you want to be by the end of the year?

05:43I'm somewhere in the middle, because ranking is important,

05:46because it literally shows how did you do, you know, this year.

05:51So, yeah, you know, Yannick made an unbelievable last year,

05:56and he's number one, deservedly so.

05:58And so, I think it shows that, you know, I was not at my best last year,

06:03because some years I finished higher, and other guys were better than me.

06:07And at the same time, it's something when I go to the tournament,

06:10you know, here, I don't care if I'm after the tournament number four,

06:14number three, number six, because it's going to show,

06:18if I make final, I'm probably going to be number four,

06:21because three is in one part.

06:23So, just I try to do my best, and the ranking will show it.

06:27But I don't change the ranking,

06:29because otherwise I would play more tournaments last year,

06:31and probably get some more points, 250s or 500s.

06:36And so, I don't chase it, but I need to do better to be higher ranked.

06:41Prashanth.

06:44I wanted to ask you about the locker room and Kyrgios' somewhat,

06:49you know, he's been very vocal about the Sinha case, Sinha and Svantech.

06:54I wonder if these kind of comments, they disrupt the locker room,

07:00the harmony of the locker room.

07:02I just wanted to ask you about that.

07:05It's tough for me to say, I've been here one and a half day,

07:08and everyone that sees me in the locker room for the moment is congratulating me.

07:12So, I have a lot of harmony in the locker room,

07:15and I didn't see Nick yet.

07:17Actually, it would be interesting to see if they pass with Yannick,

07:21how it is, what is the energy.

07:23But if not, I think it depends, again, exactly.

07:27Like, in the end of the day, you know players you talk to more,

07:31you know players you talk to less,

07:33you know people you smile with and love,

07:35and maybe other ones you just say hi.

07:37So, in general, I don't think that what, let's call it the beef,

07:43or like the arguing between two, three, four players,

07:47is not going to change the whole locker room, I think.

07:49So, I didn't see any change.

07:52Charlie Howard, yeah.

07:55It's fun that there's been talk recently about certain handshakes,

07:57cold handshakes in the matches.

07:59It's quite a weird thing in tennis you have that.

08:02How do you find that, and is that something you ever think about

08:04during a match, like, oh, I wonder how it's going to be?

08:06If it's been like a particularly, you know, touchy match.

08:09During the match, I don't think I ever thought about this.

08:14No, I don't think I thought about this during the match,

08:16and for sure what happens sometimes is like,

08:17when you have the handshake,

08:19you can create some reactions, either from your side or from not.

08:23I personally, but again, I think we should be,

08:28as all the tennis players,

08:29maybe a bit more open to cold handshakes in a way,

08:32even if personally I like more Novak's style,

08:35and when I was young I was always admiring it.

08:38You know, Novak on the court can be tricky,

08:40you know, he can even be tough to his box,

08:45not to the opponent, but you can see he can get frustrated

08:48by the opponent playing well or something.

08:50But then once a match finishes, and he tells it himself, it's done.

08:54The battle is done, so he always congratulates his opponent,

08:57no matter he won, he lost, always smiling,

08:59and I like this, and at the same time,

09:01I can understand some people when they lose,

09:03you're frustrated and you don't want to smile at your opponent

09:07that just beat you, so I'm okay with both,

09:10but I prefer more warm handshakes.

09:13Last question, Howard.

09:17Why don't you like to play at 11 a.m.?

09:19You said you'd rather be out there at 2 a.m. than at 11, why not?

09:23Just because I'm more of an evening person,

09:25I don't like to stand up early, and I do a lot for practice,

09:32because this makes your, not your day shorter,

09:34but if your first practice is at 12,

09:37you know your day is going to be till 8 p.m.

09:39If your first practice is at 10, at least it's till 6 p.m.,

09:42and it's important for evening time, family time, et cetera.

09:45But when it's a tennis match, it's a different story,

09:47and I play worse, actually, when I play at 11,

09:50and that's, again, something I was also thinking about this year,

09:54and we'll try to change it,

09:56but I definitely feel better when I play in the evening and play better.

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