Daniil Medvedev on ‘crazy’ Novak Djokovic matches ahead of Dubai showdown: ‘He wakes up something in me’

Sharing a fierce rivalry with someone you like and respect so much can be a complex scenario; but not for Daniil Medvedev, who admittedly wants to see Novak Djokovic succeed and smash records, yet has no qualms about stopping him from doing that himself.

The pair will square off for the 14th time on Friday, in the Dubai semi-finals, where one of their respective streaks will come to an end.

Djokovic is on a 20-match winning run, dating back to last November’s ATP Finals, and is a perfect 15-0 in 2023. Medvedev is looking to win his third title in as many weeks, and has won his last 12 consecutive matches, within a 17-day period.

Their matches are typically gruelling affairs and have often come on the sport’s grandest stages.

“I like many things about Novak, he was so kind to me since I was a kid, since I first met him when I was 480 in the world. He was always the same, no matter if I’m No.1 in the world or No.480 and I give him a lot of respect for this.

“At the same time, I have my name a little bit in the history, I didn’t let him win the calendar-year Grand Slam and I feel really sorry for him because I would, in a way, like him to do it.

“But every time I play him I want to win, I’m competitive, I don’t care who I have on the other side of the net, if it’s my best friend, if it’s my worst enemy, I just want to win.”

Learning from Federer

It took Medvedev some time to develop this cut-throat mentality. A player with lots of charisma, on and off the court, the 27-year-old Russian can be seen taunting crowds or joking with an opponent after winning a match point with an underarm serve, like he did against Alexander Bublik in the Dubai second round on Wednesday, but he insists he is as serious as can be when it matters the most; something he says he learned from one of the sport’s all-time greats.

“When I was younger, I think I was more kind of, yeah, let’s have some fun,” recalled Medvedev.

“But since I started taking tennis more seriously, now during the match I just want to win, I want to stay focused.

“I learned it a little bit from Roger (Federer) in a way, because he’s so chill in the locker room, so funny, smiling, and then you play a match against him, you hit kind of a great shot, and it’s Roger, you saw him on TV, he’s your idol, and you kind of try to smile at him or something, and you see, it seems like he’s angry at you. I remember when playing him. And that’s actually how you should be and that’s how I try to be in the matches.”

That approach is probably how Medvedev finished his match against Coric on Thursday night by winning the last 21 consecutive points. He’ll need to be just as committed when he takes on Djokovic, who has had the upper hand in his last four showdowns with Medvedev.

A Djokovic-Medvedev special is typically a war of attrition – only five of their 13 previous meetings have ended in straight sets – and Medvedev says it usually brings out the best in him.

“We had some crazy matches. I actually know that many times when I play him, I play better than other matches. He kind of wakes up something in me where I play better. Him, he does it every match, so he doesn’t need to do it,” said Medvedev with a chuckle.

“I know that physically could be tough tomorrow, mentally could be tough, tennis solutions could be tough, but I’m ready. I know that I’ve done it in the past and I just want to show good tennis, a good fight and try to win this match.”

‘I was disappointed with myself’

By his own standards, Medvedev had a sub-par 2022, where he felt he wasn’t able to win many of his closest matches. In the ATP Finals, he lost all three of his round-robin encounters 7-6 in the third, squandering winning positions along the way.

Medvedev’s stay outside the top 10 was brief though – it only lasted for three weeks – as the Monaco resident reacted immediately by winning Rotterdam and Doha back-to-back, to re-enter that elite ranking bracket and move up to No.7.

“I would say I was kind of disappointed with myself, and that’s not an easy feeling,” said Medvedev of his slip in the rankings.

“It’s a tough feeling. And why I was like this? Because I see other young guys like me that stay in the top 10 consistently and perform consistently, which I was doing for a long time; didn’t manage to do it last year, deservedly went out of the top 10, and I was feeling like, okay, how can I change it?

“I didn’t do anything special for it but I’m happy I managed to change the momentum, [be] back into the top 10, and not have that many points to defend. I’m just happy to be back in this consistent top rhythm, which I’m going to try to hold on to as much as possible.”

The challenge of clay

Djokovic described Medvedev on Thursday as a player whose “quality is as tough as it gets” on hard courts – 16 of his 17 titles have come on that surface – and the Russian acknowledges he still has a way to go in order to master the clay.

“The clay season is a new challenge every year for me. It’s not a secret that I don’t like it that much,” said Medvedev, who lost in the French Open first round on his first four appearances at the tournament before making the quarters in 2021 and the last-16 stage in 2022.

“At the same time, I was a semi-finalist of Monte Carlo, finalist of Barcelona, and quarter-finalist in Roland Garros; I actually did worse on grass at Wimbledon, [I have] never been to the quarters. So I know that I can play good, it’s just that if on hard court sometimes I can be having a bad day and maybe win the match and be better the next day; on a clay court, on a bad day, I probably lose the matches easily, and then you see the tantrums,” he said with a laugh.

Medvedev missed two months of action last year when he underwent hernia surgery that ruled him out of clay events in Madrid and Rome, which means he could pick up lots of points with decent runs there this campaign.

Maria Sharapova famously said in the past that she felt like a “cow on ice” when she was competing on clay – “Oh yeah, that’s the same for me,” Medvedev quickly interjects – but the now-retired Russian managed to conquer the surface as years went by, and ended up winning Roland Garros twice.

“True, I forgot about that. Yes (I can be inspired by that),” said Medvedev about Sharapova’s journey on the red dirt.

“That’s funny, because in Doha, the (hard) court was really slow, probably one of the slowest, together with Rotterdam a few years back. And my wife told me that my coach Gilles was watching me play, and I was running everywhere, doing lobs, returning smashes, and he was like, ‘Damn, if Daniil could move well on clay, I think he would be unbeatable’.

“And that’s true, I never was able to move really well on clay. I slide not before the shot, but after the shot, because I don’t know, maybe I’m scared or something.

“Of course I’m trying to work on it. I’m sure I can be even bigger on clay, I just need a really good day, or basically two weeks, which on hard courts sometimes I can be off a few days and still win and then get back into the rhythm.”

‘I want to play Wimbledon’

Like all Russian and Belarusian players, Medvedev was unable to compete at Wimbledon last year due to the tournament’s ban, but he maximised on his opportunities on grass at other events outside the UK, making finals in s-Hertogenbosch and Halle.

His only non-hard court title came on grass in Mallorca back in 2021 and he feels it’s a surface he can do well on, if given the chance to participate in Wimbledon this year.

“I like grass but it’s a very tough surface, it’s a little bit tougher than hard courts, and that’s where I think Novak is amazing winning so many grass-court tournaments,” he explains.

“Because you can really just get a guy who is going to serve good this day and you have to win the tie-breaks. And Novak managed to win so many times 6-4 6-4 6-4, I actually don’t know how he does it.

“So that’s where grass is a little bit tough for me, like for example, I lost to (Tim) Van Rijthoven in the (s-Hertogenbosch) final last year and before the final I was feeling great, playing great, and he was having a good day, hitting bombs, after the match, I was like, okay, one hour, he just hit winners all over the place and I lost.

“And this on hard courts is a little bit less probable to happen.

“But I want to play on grass, I want to play Wimbledon; I don’t know what their decision is going to be. I’m just going to wait for it and hopefully I can play Wimbledon this year and show some great results.”

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