Daniil Medvedev claims Alcaraz-Djokovic rivalry is ‘great for tennis’
Daniil Medvedev has insisted that he does not find the hype around a potential US Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic ‘irritating’, as the former No.1 reveals he is attempting to get everyone talking about him at the final major of the year.
Medvedev is a former US Open champion, but was full of praise about the rivalry between the only two players above him in the ATP rankings.
“No, I think honestly it’s great,” said Medvedev. “I think it’s great for tennis that we have these two guys playing against each other right now.”
The 27-year-old continued, “As I say, it’s a great story, but then the tournament starts and hopefully we can — when I say ‘we’, me personally or someone else — we’re going to try to beat them and stop them from playing each other. But again, doesn’t irritate me at all because I always said that sometimes we have this overrated, underrated, right, usually in social media. You go on Instagram and everyone after every match is like, He’s overrated, He’s underrated. That’s their favourite thing to say.
“I think that’s normal we talk about them. I do think we still talk about me. I’m not feeling too bad, but I’m going to try. The goal is, after this US Open, that we talk about me, so I’m going to try to do it.”
Medvedev is back on Ashe. 👀 pic.twitter.com/JEPHefgVDB
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 22, 2023
Medvedev has won only three of his five matches in the lead-up to the New York major, but has revealed that he is still feeling positive, “I feel great. Then we come again to this unconscious part. Do I feel tired? I don’t think so. I feel great.
“Also Toronto and Cincinnati I had a lot of time to continue practicing, preparing, just because I had this off time when you lose. It all comes down to how do you feel during the tournament. It can be different. You can come to the tournament, you feel awful, then during the tournament you feel better and better. Or the other way around.”
Medvedev will begin his US Open campaign against the unranked Attila Balazs, who is currently on a seven-match losing streak.
Daniil Medvedev at the US Open
While a lot of the conversation relating to the US Open men’s singles tournament is currently surrounding Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, we at Tennishead have reviewed Medvedev’s impressive history at the hard court major that includes ending the Serb’s Calendar Slam bid in 2021.
Medvedev’s win-loss record in the US Open main draw: 23-5 (82%)
2017 – Lost in the first round to Denis Shapovalov, 5-7 1-6 2-6
2018 – Lost in the third round to Borna Coric (20), 3-6 5-7 2-6
2019 – Lost in the final to Rafael Nadal (2), 5-7 3-6 7-5 6-4 4-6
2020 – Lost in the semi-final to Dominic Thiem (2), 2-6 6(7)-7 6(5)-7
2021 – Beat Novak Djokovic (1), 6-4 6-4 6-4, to win the title
2022 – Lost in the fourth round to Nick Kyrgios (23), 6(11)-7 6-3 3-6 2-6
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