Daniil Medvedev – “I Hated Roger Federer”

Not long ago, the six-time Grand Slam champion, Boris Becker was appalled upon reading the stat which said, ‘no active player outside the big three under 28, (apart from Dominic Thiem and Milos Raonic in 2016), has been in a Grand Slam final’. The ‘Big Three’ of tennis have been the clearcut favourite faces of tennis, to the world outside, but certainly, their domination is causing a threat to the future of this sport. At par with the words of Becker, the 23-year-old, Daniil Medvedev spoke about his focus in tennis and dominance of the three men.

“Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong,” Daniil Medvedev said. “I don’t want to argue with this. After I need to say every generation is different so if it’s like this, it is like this. You just have to take it. Maybe he’s right. If so, bad luck for us”.

The Russian, Daniil Medvedev believes that tennis has advanced over the years, decades ago situations were not the same for the active players on tour. When players crossed their thirties they started hitting the sacks, but now the men and women on the greater of thirty are still competing on the circuit. 

“I think the biggest reason is that the medicine, physios, everything goes forwards so before everybody was finishing their careers when they were 30, they couldn’t move anymore. Now, Federer at 37 he can hold five sets on clay and be ready in two days. Before it was not possible, not it’s possible and with their experience, they’re still ahead of us,” Daniil Medvedev continued.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic would set aside racquets aside only when the other men on tour would raise their level of tennis and outdo the ‘Big Three’. “But in one moment they’ll have to go and that’s when the next generation will start winning these titles and that’s just how life is. I can’t really answer anything to that,” he added.

While growing up, Daniil Medvedev didn’t really enjoy Federer winning on the major courts, he always rooted for the ones playing against the Swiss. However, presently the Russian focuses on his progress and looks into the scope of improvement of his game.

“I felt like this when I was younger like when I was 10,” Daniil Medvedev said. “I hated Roger. I just couldn’t see him win again. I was cheering from the first round for other guys because that’s the way I was. When Barcelona was winning everything in football, I wanted them to lose badly.”

“Now it’s changed a little, at least for tennis because now I’m more focused on myself. If I lose first round, I don’t care if it’s Nadal, Roger or Novak who wins the French Open, I’m just upset about myself losing in the first round. That’s how it is.”

World Number 13, Daniil Medvedev reached the semifinals at Monte-Carlo Masters 2019, and en route to the last four round, he managed to knock down the top-seed, Novak Djokovic in three sets. “No matter who I play, I just want to win,” Daniil Medvedev said. “Roger, I didn’t beat him, I played him three times, last two times I lost easy. Novak, I finally managed to beat him [in Monte Carlo] after losing three times”.

“Do I say after this match, “Yeah I beat Novak! This is the new generation!”, no I just focus on my performance. That’s the same for every match. I should say I admire that at their age that they’re still ahead of them. They have something”.

Daniil Medvedev is dumbstruck with the consistency of all the three elite men during the Grand Slams and he does believe that they will be replaced by the present generation of tennis.

“We all have ups and downs and they don’t really have that. Every Grand Slam they are there and nearly every time they are finals or semi-finals and me at this moment I don’t know how they do it. I really want to know why. Yeah, I hope one day we start beating them,” he mentioned.

The fourth seed, Daniil Medvedev, who is presently dwelling on a career-high ranking, is now through to the pre-quarterfinals at Queen’s Club Championships as he defeated the Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4 in the round-of-32.