THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Rome. When did you get here and how is preparation going for the tournament?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Thank you. I got here Sunday, coming from Madrid. I decided, yeah, to stay in Madrid for couple of days. Had some nice time with the family, nice time off. Practiced well.
Only two days here in Rome. Honestly I feel great. It doesn't matter anything to me, honest, before the tournament. When the tournament starts, it's always a new story.
But these two days I was playing really good clay tennis. Looking forward to the tournament because I think I never won a match. So, yeah, that's the first goal (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. What is your definition of 'really good clay tennis' for your game in terms of what you have to do in order to play good clay tennis?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, play definitely some more spin. Especially the sliding, I think the sliding was always a problem. After Madrid, after I lost, a couple days I practiced there I tried really a lot to focus on the sliding, on the movement. I felt like I improve in these couple of days.
I always said the thing about clay is I don't have enough time. In Miami, you have three days, then tournament, tournament, tournament. You don't have that much time to practice.
Yeah, I was not missing many balls here these last two days. It was tough for my opponents. Again, you never know. I say all this, but maybe first match is not the case. But is good to have some good practice. Yeah, I was really happy about it.
Q. I'd like to know, apart from Wimbledon changing their policy about the Russians who can play, before they couldn't, is there anything else that has changed, in your opinion, in your relationships maybe with the players, with the tournaments let's say 15 months after the start of the war? This year something has changed, something you notice is better for you, for the atmosphere, the players? I'm sure you can elaborate.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, the thing is that, as you asked about players, tournament, except the Wimbledon situation, I like for people to decide who I am, how they know me. It's the same every player.
I don't think it changed because they know who I am. They know my position. I can talk to them about different topics. The friends I had on tour stayed my friends. Some guys maybe you know you talk less, you're not best friends, stayed the same, didn't change.
For sure, public opinion... So people who can only see mw on the tennis court, or some of them that don't know tennis but know my name, Medvedev. It could change, but they don't know me in real life.
Same about tournaments. I know all the tournament directors, all the ATP staff, you guys. Of course, we don't go dinner together or something like this, but you know me from what you see here and you can decide if you like me or not.
Talking to your question, it didn't really change. I love tennis and I love being on the tour.
Q. In Madrid you weren't happy about when you were on the second court. Obviously it's much smaller behind the baseline. I'm curious about the challenge of playing on different courts. Some of them are small for someone who likes to be very far back.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: This is very interesting topic because I can probably understand out of, what is it, 98 draw or 96...
Q. 96.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Probably out of 96 players, maybe 94 or 92 will not care about the size of the court because they just return closer and stuff.
The thing is when I talk to my coach after the match to try to see what I could have done better, how was the match, I thought it was really good match, where Aslan played good, which was impressive. The only thing we agreed on my coach was disappointing, I don't know how the match would go if I can be further on return.
On clay is even more important for me than on hard courts because in hard courts I can adapt. I like hard courts. In Doha was really small court. I managed to win it.
On clay court, especially with Aslan who has really heavy serve, because I couldn't go further, I had all the balls a little bit high, so I couldn't put power on him. Against him, if you don't put power, you get a winner straightaway. On his serve I didn't have many opportunities, and that was really disappointing.
From one point of view I understand probably all the tournaments in the world cannot make all the match courts as big as I want or some other players want. At the same time it's a disadvantage.
Playing Karatsev on the second court, I had a disadvantage. Didn't allow me to play my 100% tennis, even if I was probably at 98%. That's disappointing because it was same, practice courts are always smaller.
Today I practiced with Fritz. There were some good shots from him. I was touching the fence, so I lost the point because I touched the fence. I was straightaway thinking about Madrid.
Yeah, I would love every tennis court to be 10 meters large and 10 meters wide, but I also understand it's not possible. Every time I'm not going to have my space on the return, I'm going to be disappointed because I cannot play my best tennis.
Q. You mentioned before that with tournaments you don't have many time to practice during the year. Like now, when you lose, you have a free week. How do you balance this free time? It's more about changing something on the court or about the recovery?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It depends how you feel. After Monte-Carlo, all the swing and Monte-Carlo in a row, I had some physical problems so I didn't have a lot of time to practice the small things I maybe wanted to practice before Madrid. That was a pity.
After Madrid, physically I felt well. I knew I could practice full. That's great. So now I feel great physically. Every day I'm trying to put a strong session and try to work small things with my coach, for sure. Has been working great, so I'm looking forward to try to play the same in the matches because it's never the same.
Q. I heard positive and negative comments about the length of these Masters 1000s, two weeks or 10 days, some days no match. I'd like to know your opinion. Also about the semifinals and finals being back to back, day after day. There are five Masters 1000 that you play semifinals on Saturday and then on Sunday, like here. Some others you play Friday the semifinal and Sunday the final. I would like to know what you think is better.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Tough. It's just me, I prefer Friday and Sunday. At the same time, because it's two sets, I don't care much if it's Saturday and Sunday. It's just that then Saturday, hopefully you don't have to play like at 10 in the evening or something like this because that's when it can affect your performance the next day.
About two weeks? Personally, I like it. I think it's good for all the players. I will explain better. It gives more opportunities for players because it's a bigger draw. As we see Madrid, maybe Struff, I don't know what his ranking in the acceptance list was. With the previous draw maybe he would not get in quallies. The same: the smaller the draw, the less chances of retirement. Maybe he wouldn't get in lucky loser, would not be in his first final of a 1000, would not be in his highest ranking right now of his career.
I said it in Madrid. I think it puts less advantage for top players. Before in these tournaments top eight would have a bye, then you win two matches, you are in quarters. That's great. You can always have a walkover, a guy who is not 100% or whenever. The less matches you have, the easier it is to win the tournament. That's why for top four players is even easier to win. You have only four matches.
I think for top eight, top 16 players, it's a disadvantage. But it's more advantage for all-around top 200 players. I think it's great for tennis, so yeah.
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