DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Hello, everyone.
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference of Daniil Medvedev. Congratulations, Daniil, on your new family member.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Thanks.
THE MODERATOR: How do you feel after arriving in Melbourne?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Great. I feel in a great place. Very happy. Life on tour, the next day the baby is born and the next day you're on a flight to Australia which takes, like, 24 hours, a 10-hour difference. But that's fine with me. I always said I like tennis. I like traveling.
I'm feeling great before the start of the season and looking forward.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. What do you think of yourself coming with no tournament prep? What was your preparation able to be like while you were at home?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Honestly, the preparation was great. I don't want to make like too big of a statement. I felt like it was one of the best pre-seasons I made. I had quite some time. I think we made five weeks, which is a lot.
To be honest, I don't see myself... I was thinking about this year. Last year I made the same, no tournaments. In my opinion, it starts too early. I don't celebrate Christmas the 25th, but in Russia it's more important the 31st and the 1st is very important. That's where Santa Claus comes in Russia and gives you presents, et cetera.
I feel like I'm at the age where I want to be at home. I don't see myself ever playing something before Australian Open because I really like to spend this time with my family, which is growing.
So yeah, I think the season starts too early. But I feel great, because it gives me extra time to practice. I think we're going to see a lot of interesting things from me, and I'm looking forward to it.
Q. You're known as one of the greatest problem solvers on tour. Andy Murray is one of the other ones. Now he's solving problems from the coaching box. I wonder if you ever thought what it would be like to sit in a coaching box and try to do what you do on court from there rather than from the baseline? How different do you think it would be? And what do you think his impact on Novak Djokovic will be like?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: Yeah, the impact on Novak is tough to say. The thing about coaching Novak, he's so strong, that imagine he wins, is it because of Andy or because it's Novak?
I think it's a great partnership in terms of everything, even like energy, like media-wise, tennis-wise, growing like tennis. It's great. Imagine Messi would become the coach of Cristiano Ronaldo. It would be strange.
About me being coach, I have no idea what I would do after my career. It could be anything, could be related to tennis or not.
I heard from everyone that it's pretty stressful to be in the box. In a way, like, you cannot control what your player is doing there. It's a much tougher feeling.
I can feel it when I play team competitions. You really want your teammate to win. When he misses, you're like, C'mon, do better. It's not the same when you're on the court, so it could be pretty fun.
Q. I remember last year a lot of talk coming in here was about Jannik and Carlos. You still managed to get to the final. You were pretty pleased with your position as a disrupter in the sport. Do you still feel like a disrupter, or has maybe some of your confidence been at all dented by some of the results you've had against those guys?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I would say a bit less. Why? Because I didn't manage last year, except the Australian Open, I was less of a disrupter because Carlos and Jannik were beating me a lot of times. A lot of tournaments I was getting to the good stages but not able to beat them.
I would like to become again, I don't even know this word, but let's say disrupter, because it means that I will be able to get to these later stages and win them.
Again, at this moment they're clearly the favorites, and that's normal. I try to develop something, and let's see if it works. As I say, last year I could see that it's not enough, what I'm doing against them, so I'll try to improve.
Q. Again, looking back to last year. You started the tournament with an incredibly late finish. Given that and kind of what that meant for the next few days or even maybe the rest of your tournament, will you be requesting not to play last at night?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: No, I'm okay. I probably like to play more at night than in the morning. Like, I prefer even last, second after 7:00 than to 11:00 start matches. I'm okay. I got super unlucky with the tiebreaker. They played, what was it, 22-20, I think, something crazy. I don't even remember the exact score. It was like a 40-minute tiebreak. I got super unlucky. My match was also long, which could happen.
I'm okay to play second after 7:00. Me personally, I think the night session should start at 6:00 so we don't have this problem. Then I would not finish at 3:30 but 2:30, and it's a big difference. It's okay. I don't want to request. I don't want to play at 11:00. I would rather play an night.
Q. How much are you driven by the ranking, having been at the top, been right there at No. 2, now dropped down out of the top four. Does that go into your mind at all, especially as you approach the beginning of the year? Do you set goals in terms of where you want to be by the end of the year?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I'm somewhere in the middle. Ranking is important because it literally shows how did you do this year. So yeah, Jannik made an unbelievable last year, and he's No. 1. Deservedly so.
I think it shows that I was not at my best last year, because some years I finished higher and other guys were better than me. At the same time it's something, when I go to the tournament here, I don't care if I'm after the tournament No. 4, No. 3, No. 6, because it's going to show, if I make final, I'm probably going to be No. 4.
I try to do my best, and the ranking will show it. But I don't chase the ranking, because otherwise I would play more tournaments last year, probably get some more points, 250s or 500s. I don't chase it.
I need to do better to be higher ranked.
Q. I wanted to ask you about the locker room, and Kyrgios has been very vocal with the Sinner and Swiatek cases. I wonder if these kind of comments disrupt the locker room, the harmony of the locker room? I wanted to ask you about that.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: It's tough for me to say. I've been here one-and-a-half days. Everyone that sees me in the locker room for the moment is congratulating me. I have a lot of harmony in the locker room (smiling).
I didn't see Nick yet. Actually would be interesting to see if they pass with Jannik, how it is, what is the energy. But if not, I think it depends, again, exactly like in the end of the day. You know players you talk to more, players you talk to less. People you smile with and laugh, and maybe other ones you just say hi.
In general, let's call it the beef or the arguing between two, three, four players, is not going to change the whole locker room I think.
I didn't see any change.
Q. There's been talk recently about handshakes, cold handshakes at the end of matches. It's a weird thing in tennis you have that. How do you find that? Is that something you ever think about during a match, if it's been a particularly touchy match.
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: During the match, I don't think I thought about this (smiling). No, I don't think I thought about this during the match.
For sure what happens is sometimes when you have the handshake, you can create some reactions from your side or not.
Again, I think we should be, as all the tennis players, maybe a bit more open to cold handshakes in a way, even if personally I like more Novak style. When I was young, I was always admiring it, Novak on the court, can be tricky. Even like, yeah, be tough to his box.
Not to the opponent, but you can see he can get frustrated by the opponent playing well or something. But once the match finishes, he tells himself, It's done, the battle is done. He always congratulates his opponent, no whether he won or lost. Always smiling. I like this.
At the same time, I can understand some people when they lose, you're frustrated, you don't want to smile at your opponent that just beat you.
I'm okay with both but I prefer warm handshakes.
Q. Why don't you like to play at 11 a.m.? You said you'd rather be out there at 2 a.m.?
DANIIL MEDVEDEV: I'm more of an evening person. I don't like to stand up early. I do a lot for practice because this makes not your day shorter, but if your practice is at 12:00, you know your day is going to be till 8 p.m. If your first practice is at 10:00, at least it's still 6:00 p.m. It's important for evening time, family time, et cetera.
When it's a tennis match, it's a different story. I actually play worse when I play at 11:00. That's again something I was also thinking about this year, try to change it, but I definitely feel better when I play in the evening, and play better.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports