Daniil Medvedev reveals goal before he ‘finishes’ his career
Daniil Medvedev has found a return to form, evidenced by his 18-match winning streak, and the former No.1 has revealed how he wants to end his career with ‘no regrets’.
Medvedev has won three titles on his current run of form, in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai, and is also in the semi-finals of Indian Wells for the first time, despite expressing his dislike for the ‘slow’ surface.
The 2021 US Open champion has spoken about when he started to ‘take tennis more seriously’, “But four years ago when I started to take tennis more seriously for a bunch of different reasons that were happening in my life, where before I was just, I was already top 100 but I was just traveling the tour, in a way for fun, because tennis is never fun; it’s always your job.”
Medvedev continued, “But I could go out before the tournament, I could go to sleep late before the match, because I was, like, whatever, I’m gonna play well anyway.”
The 27-year-old claims that he planned to end his career without any regrets, but admitted that there is a match that hinders this plan, “Then at one moment I stopped this and I started being more professional about my career and my tennis.”
“That’s when I set my most important goal is to have no regrets when I finish my career. Meaning the match with Rafa [Nadal], for sure I regret that I couldn’t win it and didn’t have my second slam. I was close, but I fighted. I fighted till the end. Maybe I missed some shots, but that’s sport.”
The match Medvedev was referring to was the 2022 Australian Open final against Rafael Nadal, where he was two sets up before losing, 6-2 7-6(5) 4-6 4-6 5-7.
The Russian confessed that he already had an age in mind for when he might end his career, “When I’m 35 or whatever and I retire, I don’t want to say, like I heard some other tennis players do, if I would have done this different in my career, maybe my career would be better or I regret doing this.”
He added, “I want to, when I finish my career, no matter how many slams, tournaments won, or whatever, just to know that I have done my best. So far I feel like I’m achieving my goal, even last year not the best year, but I was trying. I was trying hard, and I was doing my best, and has been working this year. So that’s my biggest goal.”
Medvedev will attempt to have no regrets on Saturday, when he plays Frances Tiafoe for a place in the Indian Wells final. He will be the favourite with four wins in his five previous matches against the American, with his only loss coming back in 2015.
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