Daniil Medvedev holds a Tour-leading 33 wins on hard courts this year and has lifted four trophies on the surface, equal with Novak Djokovic. Arriving at the China Open this week, the World No. 3 is determined to add to his title collection.
“It’s my first time in Beijing. The tournament is super strong. So if you win it, it’s great. It’s a great memory. It’s great for the confidence. There are still some important tournaments to come, so the better you play the end of the season, the better you play the beginning of the next one,” Medvedev said during his pre-tournament press conference. “The motivation is to try to do all this, to continue proving to yourself that you can win these big tournaments, big titles, against big opponents.”
Medvedev is making his debut in Beijing and arrives at the ATP 500 event off the back of a run to the title match at the US Open, where he defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals.
The 27-year-old is excited by the possibility of facing top seed Alcaraz again this week, but is wary of the other threats in a stacked ATP 500 field. Eight of the Top 10 players in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings are competing in Beijing.
“I think if we face each other, we are both happy, we are both in the final,” Medvedev said when asked about potentially playing Alcaraz. “That’s a good goal, to try to make this happen.
“At the same time, as I said, so many good players. It’s tough. It’s like an ATP Masters 1000 here or a Grand Slam. In a way it’s even stronger than a Grand Slam, where you don’t have first rounds, where you maybe can get into the tournament, which sometimes can be the case in a Grand Slam… I think we’re going to see a lot of different results where the seeded players can lose and stuff like this because first rounds are never easy.”
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Medvedev faces World No. 13 Tommy Paul in the first round and could play World No. 12 Alex de Minaur in the second round if the Australian can defeat 2016 champion Andy Murray in his opening match.
Medvedev feels his game is in good shape ahead of the event and is excited to play in China.
“The arena looks really nice,” Medvedev said. “I practised both yesterday and today. It looks very, very nice. I’m sure there is going to be a lot of people during the matches. Let’s see. I only heard good things. First time I’m going to experience it. On ATP level, I think I only played in Shanghai and I really like it. I think it’s going to be the same here.”