Demi-finaliste l'an passé, Daniil Medvedev n'a eu aucun souci à se débarasser de l'Américain Alekansdar Kovacevic au premier tour Wimbledon. Une victoire acquise en trois sets 6-3, 6-4 6-2 et 1h49 de jeu sans jamais lâcher son jeu de service. Une bonne entrée en matière avant d'affronter le Français Alexandre Müller, tombeur d'Hugo Gaston, au deuxième tour. En conférence de presse, le Russe s'est néanmoins fait remarquer pour ses propos sur le format des tournois du Grand Chelem. En effet, l'actuel n°5 mondial a avoué qu'il préférerait jouer des matchs en deux sets gagnants plutôt qu'en cinq sets, qu'il juge trop éprouvants.
Video : @Wimbledon
Video : @Wimbledon
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00:00Hi Danilo, I'm Flo from QualityShop. I was just wondering, your game style seems like
00:10it suits grass really well. Would you say that you feel more confident going into a
00:14tournament on grass and how would you describe your relationship with the surface?
00:19Yeah, I probably feel more confident and in a way I feel like my high level is higher
00:26on grass and on clay, but then hardcore stays the surface where I feel the most confident
00:31and where I know I can win whatever happens etc. But look, I played very good last year
00:37in Wimbledon, I played a very good match today, so I'm feeling great, I'm looking forward
00:42and I need to keep going, it's going to be a tough road and I will try to go all the
00:47way.
00:49Hi Danilo, you said you played very good last year, was it learning last year that it's
00:54going to help you this year?
00:58I think yeah, I think before last year, if I'm not mistaken, I only made 4th round in
01:04Wimbledon and I always felt kind of not bad, but sometimes you know, you get like a Huracach
01:11or someone else and it's a big serve and you can lose some tie-breaks. Last year I managed
01:16to go step-by-step till the semi-finals and with Carlos I had to do much better, I lost
01:21easy to be honest. So again, I think this for sure gives me confidence for this year
01:27knowing that I can take this step-by-step and then against the best players I need to
01:31be better and I'm ready to do it.
01:33Danilo, last year you went deep into the tournament and this tournament the courts played really
01:40different from the first rounds to the later stages. Which kind of surface do you prefer
01:49here?
01:50It's a bit tough to say because I feel like every year is different, like some years a
01:56bit faster, some years a bit slower. What is for sure that the later the tournament
02:01goes a little more bad bounces on the baseline because we step on it with the foot after
02:06the serve and stuff like this. So in a way I think it's a bit tougher to play in the
02:13later stages and at the same time you get all this like repetitions confidence in so
02:17you play better. So only one time I played in the semis here, you know, so tough for
02:24me to say the difference. The only thing I feel is that court one is always very different
02:29from center court which is a bit strange and I would say I would see center court a bit
02:34slower to be honest, like higher bounce and slower. Maybe I'm wrong. And it was like last
02:40year it was really not easy for me to get used to this change in the semis. But look,
02:50I'm joking about it. Before the tournament I played on center court and last year I played
02:54on court one. So hopefully it gets me the confidence for center court.
02:59Hi Daniil, service numbers look good today. I just wondered how you're feeling generally
03:05about your serve right now. How much you're able to practice it at the moment?
03:10Actually a lot. I think, to be honest, I felt very good in Roland Garros with my serve which
03:18I managed to practice before. On grass I would want it better. But it's OK. During the tournament
03:26many times I was, throughout my career, able to push it up. I think today was good. I guess
03:34the percentage was high. I didn't look it up yet. Could be more precise, but it's OK.
03:39I'm going into perfection. So I hope to continue improving it during the tournament. I'm feeling
03:45good with my shoulder and that's the most important.
03:47It's another serve question, just on underarm serves, which you've used, it's been used
03:53on you. Can I just ask you how good a tactic you think it is both to use yourself but also
03:57against someone like you who likes to stand quite far back?
04:01I think, first of all, I have never had anything against it. The only thing I could think about
04:08is sometimes when we trick the underarm serve, so usually someone would bounce the ball five
04:14times on the ground and then when he does the underarm to trick you, he does it straight
04:18away. It's a bit debatable whether or not it should be considered as, no, you bounce
04:24it five times like you do always and then you do the underarm. This is a little bit
04:28of a different question. Again, I used it sometimes myself. I think it's a fair tactic.
04:35I do think it's a tactic that has its limits and that's why no one is using it too much,
04:40you know, to surprise one, two times, yes. If you do it the third time, it's going to
04:45be, I feel like, tough for you to win the point. Same, I mean, on grass, when you can
04:52hit a first serve ace, I prefer to go for the ace but then, you never know, maybe one
04:57time I'm going to do it, sneak one in there. Yeah, not much more to add.
05:05What are your thoughts on the matches at majors being five sets as opposed to everywhere else
05:11we do three? Look, I always said that I completely, like, understand it and I think it's very
05:17spectacular and good. If you ask me, I would prefer three sets. That's just my personal
05:23opinion, you know, and I don't even have a valid explanation for this, just how I want
05:31it. But what is true is that it makes it much more intense mentally, physically. Again,
05:41like the Australian Open I did this year was pretty special memories because of the five
05:46sets I won. So, yeah.
05:50When you said, just one follow-up, you said you don't know if you have a valid reason.
05:54What are your reasons?
05:55I think five sets is much tougher for the body, so I can get more injuries. From what
06:04I hear from many people on TV, okay, if you have a crazy five setter that goes five hours,
06:09it's great and it stays in the history. But if it's like a little bit up and down four
06:14setter that goes for three hour 30, I think many people like stop watching it from time
06:19to time and they go in and out. In general, yeah, I think for the TV is not easy, like,
06:25not knowing when the match exactly is going to be because of the previous matches. It's
06:29the same for the players. So all like this small details, I would be like, okay, with
06:33three sets. And at the same time, who knows, maybe we would have a different record, different
06:39record holders if it was out of three. And that makes it also beautiful at the same time.
06:44So I'm like somewhere in the middle, but a little bit leaning towards three sets.
06:48Hey, Daniel, what specifically have you worked on in order to get yourself more comfortable
06:54and more effective on grass in particular shots of footwork? Everyone always talks about
06:59the movement, but that seems sort of obvious. You have to move well everywhere.
07:04For me, it's a lot about repetition. Like when I come on grass first week, I would always
07:10like my forehand, I would, especially with my big swing, I would hit it too late many
07:15times in the net and not a good rhythm. It's so different from clay. And again, I see it
07:22on practice. Some players, I see them coming, you know, from good result in Roland-Garros
07:26and like Alex De Minar and win her Toggenbosch. I cannot, I feel like I cannot do this. I
07:31need time to adapt. And that's why I feel like usually my best game on grass was coming
07:37like either Wimbledon or the week before. And I was working a lot on everything, movement,
07:43different muscles work. So a lot of physical work to like low back, glutes, so that they
07:48don't get too sore. Otherwise, low back can get injured. A lot of serve for sure. And
07:55again, a lot of repetition of just hitting the ball and trying to find the rhythm.
07:59Last English question.
08:01Hi, Gilles, just a random one for me. A couple of days ago, Carlos was in here and he was
08:07asked whether to kind of get the feelings back on grass, whether he watches YouTube
08:13videos of great grass court players. And he said, yeah, I do. And I also watch videos
08:17of myself at my peak to kind of remind myself how that goes. Is that something tennis players
08:24do? Would you ever watch a video of like your best matches to kind of remind yourself?
08:30I do sometimes. It's like I am always someone who is like, sometimes I do things, sometimes
08:38I don't. So like a couple of times when I won big tournaments, even I remember during
08:44the US Open, which I won, I would after the match, a good match, I would come in the room
08:49and not rewatch the full match, but watch the highlights of this match to remember the
08:53good shots I made. And then some of the tournaments I won and I didn't do it. So it's the same
08:58on grass, actually, for whatever reason, I'm much more focused on myself on the court rather
09:07like than watching myself on videos, etc. On clay this year, I actually tried to watch
09:14the Rome of last year to see what I did exactly to to win this tournament, where I was good,
09:20where my game was good. Did it help me? I don't know. The results were not the same.
09:26But yeah, as I say, you know, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It's just the way I
09:29feel at the moment. And if I have free time, other people, sometimes like same or if I'm
09:35going to come home now, it's going to be football. So probably we'll watch football. But like
09:40if I come home, I may have a laptop on tennis and TV on football or if there is no football
09:47or TV on tennis, but like not on purpose. But if it's a good match, especially why not?
09:54Right. Thank you. Thank you.