Daniil Medvedev ‘wants to play Wimbledon’ but ‘just going to wait for it’ ahead of summer Grand Slam

Daniil Medvedev has told Eurosport “I want to play on grass, I want to play Wimbledon” as he looks ahead to the summer and returning to the year’s third Grand Slam that he had to miss last season.

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.

“Because you can really just get a guy who is going to serve good this day and you have to win the tie-breaks. 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’.

“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.”

Speaking about taking the positives from his Wimbledon ban during the North American hard-court swing late last year, he took it all in his stride.

“You have to appreciate it because I definitely couldn’t change the decision of Wimbledon. I have to follow the rules,” he said at the Canadian Open in Montreal.

“If you focus on the negative part. For sure I wanted to play Wimbledon, I wanted to do well there. I always want to be in the biggest tournaments and try to play good.

“You can just stay in this circle of, ‘oh, my God, I was not able to be there’.

“What matters is playing tennis. I really enjoy my job. Yeah, again, it’s about following the rules.

“The rule at one point was very clear that we have to play under a neutral flag. Me, I’m still Daniil Medvedev. I still want to win big titles, win big matches or small matches. It doesn’t change.”

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