Relieved by his fine victory over De Minaur in his second match at the Turin Masters, the Russian spoke at a press conference about his reaction to his defeat by Fritz.
After his deviations and deplorable attitude during his defeat to Taylor Fritz (4-6, 3-6)Daniil Medvedev bounced back in his second match at the Masters. This time against Alex De Minaur, the Russian did all he could to come out on top (6-2,6-4). “He played a very high-level match, he was much more aggressive. You could tell from the way he hit the ball that he was confident.”explained the Australian world No.9, who is making his ATP Masters debut.
To explain his metamorphosis, Medvedev said he had approached this crucial encounter to continue his journey in Turin with a very… “Medvedian” mental approach. “Medvedevian” approach. “I went out on the pitch really, really trying not to care if I lost or if I won, if I played well or if I played badly.”he explained in a long and lively press conference. “Unfortunately for Alex, it worked and I played twenty-six times better than I did in my first game.”smiled the Russian, who also made some changes to his equipment. “with a view to next season”.
“It’s not an attitude I could have for a whole season, but it’s the end of the year and it was the solution after I went nuts, because I went nuts, against Fritz.”he continued. He also returned to his celebration after the win, when he plugged his ears. “to say that I had blocked out the noises coming from me, from the stands or from social networks.”.
With this success, we’ll have to wait until the final day of this group on Thursday to find out the two qualifiers for the semi-finals, regardless of the outcome of the match between world No.1 Jannik Sinner and American Taylor Fritz (No.5) later in the evening.
Medvedev has no choice but to beat the Italian, who has won seven of their last eight meetings, including the final of the Australian Open 2024 after losing the first two sets. “I know what I have to do tactically against him, but the problem is that he’s so good, even making the perfect match from a tactical or tennis point of view, you can lose.”warned the Russian.
Earlier in the day, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz didn’t reassure his fans, cutting short his public training session after just fifteen minutes. The world No.2, beaten the day before by Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-1, 7-5, has been ill for several days. He is due to face Russian Andrey Rublev this Wednesday afternoon, who was also beaten in his opening match by German Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-4. As a reminder, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov could replace him in the event of his withdrawal, and play the last two matches in his place.