While tennis fans may be looking ahead to a potential Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic final at the US Open, World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev is looking to play the role of disruptor this fortnight.
Medvedev has enjoyed the Alcaraz-Djokovic budding rivalry like anyone else, but with much of the attention on the top seed and the 23-time major champion, the 27-year-old could crash the party.
“I think that’s normal we talk about them. I do think we still talk about me,” Medvedev said in his pre-tournament press conference. “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. I just try to win. That’s the most important. But unconsciously, I feel like many times I was playing good in this role. Hopefully it can help me these two weeks.
“I think it’s great for tennis that we have these two guys playing against each other right now. As I say, it’s a great story, but then the tournament starts and hopefully we can — when I say ‘we’ [I mean] me personally or someone else — we’re going to try to beat them and stop them from playing each other.”
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The third seed Medvedev enters the season’s final major boasting a 49-11 match record this year. A highlight of his season came in February and March, when Medvedev won 19 consecutive matches and collected three straight titles: Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai.
Aiming for his sixth trophy of the season and first major title since his triumph in New York two years ago, Medvedev is still finding ways to improve his game.
“Definitely the serve, trying to work on it right now. Serve is a tough shot because it’s such fine margins sometimes,” Medvedev said. “It’s probably the most important shot in tennis because in general, serve can save you many times. You can play not the best match, but serve can save you. You go to the tie-break, then you start playing better. Happened to me many times.
“Everyone went through this stage and sometimes it’s in one week and sometimes it’s in one month where you serve just a little bit worse. In general, I know I can serve very well. Usually, the US Open for whatever reason I was serving even better than I usually do. Hopefully this can help me.”
The 20-time tour-level titlist will open against Hungarian Attila Balazs and is seeded to meet long-time friend Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals. A potential meeting with Wimbledon champion Alcaraz lies in the semi-finals, but Medvedev enters the American Slam with his full attention on one match at a time.
“I’m feeling good right now. Hopefully I can feel like this during the tournament also,” Medvedev said. “How do you cope with this? You try with your team to do the best schedule possible in terms of days off, practices, what you do in your off time. I feel like I’m pretty experienced in this so hopefully I can be 100 per cent starting from the first match.”
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