'I would just love to play Roger Federer, Nadal, Djokovic because...', says ATP star

Daniil Medvedev lost his last match on 30 October 2020 in the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna. Since then, the Russian player has won the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000, the ATP Finals and the ATP Cup and opened a streak of 14 consecutive victories before the start of the Australian Open. The music did not change during the first Grand Slam of the year as Medvedev added 6 more successes in a row to his already incredible milestone and reached his second final in a Major. On the other side of the net, he will find Novak Djokovic, who has won 8 titles in Melbourne, always expressing a very high level of tennis. The world number four only encountered some difficulties in the third round match against Filip Krajinovic, but now he seems to be truly unstoppable. Daniil Medvedev extended his winning streak to 20 matches by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Australian Open semifinals on Friday. Medvedev has now defeated all but one top 10 player in the last four months - with the only exception being Roger Federer. During his press conference on Friday Daniil Medvedev was informed about the only knock on his top 10 record, and the Russian responded in typically tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Medvedev on facing Roger Federer

"It's a pity that Roger Federer is not playing, I would love to play him. (laughs)," Daniil Medvedev said. "I'm not saying anything... I would just love to play him, as with all the Big 3," Medvedev said. Roger Federer and Daniil Medvedev have been on drastically different paths the last couple of years, ever since their Miami meeting. While a 38-year-old Federer pushed for the title at Wimbledon in 2019, Medvedev went on a five-match losing streak despite initially putting up a fine run at the Monte Carlo Masters. But then Federer suffered heartbreak at the hands of Novak Djokovic as he wasted two match points before eventually losing in a super tiebreaker, and everything changed after that. In the third set of the semi-final of the Australian Open 2021, Medvedev went to the chair umpire James Keothavong and had a chat. Interestingly, it was about Tsitsipas’ father and coach, Apostolos Tsitsipas. The World No.4 player complained that Tsitsipas’ father was talking too much during the game. Medvedev was certainly feeling very distracted and thus decided to go and have a talk with Keothavong. It was definitely strange as Medvedev was winning comfortably and even was a break up in the third set. It must have been something that had bothered him earlier, but clearly, the Russian player was not able to focus.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Nw3bCe