Last year’s US Open finalist Danil Medvedev spoke about the relationship to his coach, his passion for France, his defeat to Rafael Nadal at the US Open final and the prospect of winning a Grand Slam title during a Instagram Live chat with We are Tennis, which was translated by Tennis World.
Medvedev has admitted that we will have to wait a little bit longer for a new Grand Slam champion outside the Big Three (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer).
The last time someone outside the Big three lifted a Grand Slam title dates back to the 2016 US Open.
Medvedev said that it will be tough to break the dominance of the Big Three, if the tennis season resumes later this year when the coronavirus pandemic will be over.
“It depends on when we resume. For example if we resume at Roland Garros, we can say that it will be very difficult to have a new champion. In Grand Slam you have to win seven matches. After that I can’t speak for the other Next Gen, but my goal is to give my best, to win my matches. It’s still difficult, especially with the Big Three, who are still up there, but we make our matches, we try”, said Medvedev.
Medvedev enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2019 in which he finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal and won two Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Shanghai plus two ATP 250 titles in Sofia and St. Petersburg. He finished runner-up in Brisbane, Barcelona, Washington and Montreal. In 2020 Medvedev advanced to the fourth round at the Australian Open for the second straight year losing to Stan Wawrinka in five sets and reached the quarter final in Marseille.
“The US Open final was great match. I was very disappointed with my defeat because I don’t like to lose. A lot of people contacted me to compliment me, to tell me that I was the real winner, which I didn’t really like, because if it did, I would have already a Grand Slam, but it doesn’t happen to me that I get to the bottom of the hole after a defeat. You have to keep working to be better. I try to be myself as much as possible. I try to stay myself and not necessarily say what the world wants to hear. It’s easier like that”.
Medvedev has been working with his French coach Gilles Cervara for a long time.
“I have been training with him for three years. We have a good relationship. We can say that we are friends in private. We spend a lot of time together, so it’s normal to have arguments and good times. I have a good relationship to France, which has given me a lot of things. Of course at first it was hard. I did not speak too much French. I had no friends. They were all in Moscow. I could have moments of sadness or nostalgia, but now I have been in France for six years, I speak French. I am more Russian than French, but if I had to have a second country, it would be France. I learn a lot, and the language gives me a lot of good references”.