Daniil Medvedev

00:00:04
Speaker 1: M Rene. We have a special episode today. We are sending down our feed, the courtesy of our friends over at the legendary soccer podcast Men and Blazers, an interview with Danil Menvedev.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: And actually listening to this interview he does with our friends at Men in Blazers, I found him to be unbelievably thoughtful and interesting and not shy in being honest with his feelings. And I just I found it to be so fascinating because what I heard out of him in the in this pod is somebody I expected and I hoped for, and that's exactly what I got. And I just I just think he's fascinating in every sense of the word. And I've had my own, you know, situations with him on court, postmatch interviews and also most notably in his loss at the Washington Tournament a couple of years ago to Nick Kurios and his runner up speech there was unbelievable. It was funny, he was engaging and very nice and kind, and then of course that ensued, you know, that summer that he had where he culminated in his loss of the Years Open. But yeah, I just I enjoy him.

00:01:23
Speaker 3: I just I just really like this guy.

00:01:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. I was really struck by sort of how jocular he is. You watch him play and you think he's going to be sort of like Kaiser Sursey because he's got such a sort of off speed game. But he's really funny. He talks a lot about how you know, he knew he would have to win differently and so he adjusted his game and doing all the other stuff like playing chess and video games growing up in Russia made him such a different mind. So it was a really cool look at what his mind is like. And he's also sort of fun and, like I said, really jocular, like he's kind of hamming it up with these guys in a way that I loved.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: I don't want to I don't want to say anything about what he says on the podcast, but there were some really interesting things that he said that really opened my eyes to how he thinks, and he's not He doesn't think like a normal tennis player. He thinks like a really thoughtful human being about how he wins tennis matches and what he wants to get out of things, and how he turned that situation at the US Open where the crowd I mean, essentially didn't like him, and how he used it and then how he understood how to make it better, and I just, yeah, I just think he's really thoughtful. He's hit the best shot, one of the best shots I've ever seen this year at this Strain Open. When he hit that running back and passing shot. I think I believe it was against sits a pass. It was just it was literally I don't even know how he hit it. So this guy not only is he thoughtful and you know, very pragmatic with the way he thinks, but also as a tennis player, he's fantastic.

00:02:47
Speaker 1: It's incredible amount of fun to watch him as it has been watching him in Miami. And again, if you like the interview, obviously go check out and Blazers, the Legendary soccer podcast. All of this was brought to you by the cast, So thank you so much for the cast for having us, and we really hope you enjoyed this interview from the Men in Blazers team with Danelle Menlo.

00:03:11
Speaker 4: This is Rebecca Lo or Rebecca Lua. If you listen to Suboptimal Radio and you are listening to Men in Blazers on the NBC Sports Network.

00:03:26
Speaker 5: It's Roger and Dave O here with a special episode of Men in Blazers.

00:03:30
Speaker 6: Yes, for a change, we get to talk about a sport we actually know something about, tennis, a game we both loved dearly, which makes this the deby of Men in Blazers on grass.

00:03:42
Speaker 5: Yes, Roger Tennis is back with the Miami Open on the hard courts of the hard Rock Stadium, a tournament I love it. I've attended it so many times since it debuted in the mid eighties. It's where a twenty two year old Federer first played a seventeen year old Nadal in two thousand and four, and now, after a one year hiatus, it's going to be played in front of real, live tennis oubcessed South Florida humans, including myself, starting next week. I can't wait to be there again and watch pro tennis in person.

00:04:08
Speaker 6: To celebrate, we've partnered with Lacoste, that dashing brand we've long adored and bodied by its founder, the French tennis legend Renee Lacoste, a darling, romantic champion who went Grand slams on the court while making time to invent the ball machine, the steel framed racket, and of course the polo shirt. Off it to me. Lacosts always been a distinctive brand that canutes an elegant It's a style, a daring. I've won it from the age of eleven onwards and always felt at the heart of Lacoste the lies a mindset with which to attack life itself.

00:04:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's the most stylish of all tennis brands for sure, and its modern standard bearer is Danil Medvedev, a young man as distinctive as Ronae la cost was in his day. The bear to his crocodile, if you will, the twenty five year old Russian has emerged with his unique game to become one of the most fascinating and human stories in the tennis world on the men's side. Winner now of ten career a tob titles, hoping to make Miami his eleventh, he will take to the court head to toe in the latest high performance and snazzy lacostegear, a Technifiber three H five racket in his hands and his new lacost signature shoe, the AGLT twenty one Ultra, which is as exceptional as he is on his feet. We talked to him about his early days, his rise and life lessons learned along the way. Oh, such a joy to talk to a man who, at this very moment is on the precipice of becoming the next great in the game. Here's our interview with Danil Medvedev.

00:05:41
Speaker 6: Our guest today is a remarkable sporting maverick disruptor, a man who's danced a singular path to glory, melding an unorthodox playing style, elite athleticism, resilience and concentration superpowers to mentally grind down all comers. He's often said that he resembles Quentin Tarantino, but he blows away tennis conventions like Jules Winfield out of Moscow via the south of France. A man who's just risen to number two in the world. It's a joy to welcome mister Danil Medvedev.

00:06:16
Speaker 5: Well, guys, Danil, great to have you on the show. Your parents had you playing a lot of different sports when you were growing up. Age six, you went to your local swimming pool for a swimming lesson and you happened to see an ad for tennis training. Take us back to this moment because it changed your life.

00:06:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely did. I didn't think at the time that it would. I know, I dried my hair and everything, but I remember an advertisement. It's like when you got off the swimming pool. So I actually don't remember if it was my mom or me who asked, okay, let's go try and we went there and yeah, that was the first time I took a tennis regan the.

00:06:50
Speaker 6: First time you hit. Did it just feel different to whether sports you played?

00:06:54
Speaker 3: Uh No, I was already in bombs two hundred away. I remember that they would not take everybody because they would not have plays for everybody. They asked to play a ball with the wall, and of course I never hold the record in my life, so I don't know why if they choose me, but I got.

00:07:12
Speaker 6: In that six foot six six year old, They're like, we want him.

00:07:17
Speaker 5: How did it playing against the wall develop your game?

00:07:20
Speaker 3: Early Russia many ankets, I mean not only in Russia. I play against the wall. I imagined a bond and against me, which would be definitely Roger or Rapha. At the time, I just saw them playing against them, and I have to try to win the point, and it was basically impossible.

00:07:33
Speaker 5: The wall never misses off the court.

00:07:36
Speaker 6: You were a chess player, and a big, big gamer. Shout out to Rainbow six, two joys which combine to give you a unique strategic approach to the game. Your friend, fellow Russian pro Andre rube Lev once said, back when you were kids, you daniel with lob opponents for hours to win matches, sending them sprinting to the back of the court over and over again, wearing them down physically and emotionally until they had nothing left. What was going on in your head? Was it that you love to toy and test your opponents?

00:08:06
Speaker 3: This was amazing matches. I was playing tournaments against definitely better opponents physically, technically. They were just better tennis players than me. So I understood that if I'm gonna play normal, I'm never gonna win the match, and I'm all about winning. I love winning. I hate to lose. That's why I get crazy sometimes on the court, and so many many times, the only choice I had is to love by opponents because they were too young to know how to deal with it, and that was my only chance to try to win.

00:08:33
Speaker 6: The style you proceeded to develop is unique. You learned the game in an era in which the Big Three dominated, shaping so many of your fellow next gens in the process. There are multiple baby feds and baby raffers, but Medvedev's style has always been your own. Your signature flat low blows one hundred percent pure de nail. Seems like you never modeled your game on anyone.

00:08:56
Speaker 3: When I was young, you watch the best on the TV and then think, okay, maybe I can take something from him, maybe a backhand or beforehand. But as to the most important is to put the ball in the court to make winners. That's what you have to do. You know, it doesn't matter which technique. So I tried to just make the best shot at the moment I saw that people don't like my flat ball. Actually, when I was playing futures, at one moment it was even too much because I tried to play my backhand with the back spin and I would miss a lot because of this. And that's when I thought, okay, I have to also know how to do a normal one with the speed. Step by step, I developed my game.

00:09:33
Speaker 5: Tonill. Let's take you to the end of your junior career. Twenty fourteen. You moved to the South of France, you turn pro eighteen years old. You've described yourself as not much of a dreamer. But take us back to those days, Daniel, at eighteen, when you first joined the tour, What did you believe was really possible for you in tennis?

00:09:52
Speaker 3: To be honest, was a very tough moment because coming from juniors to pros, I didn't get much help, I feel like from anybody except my arents. Was not an easy time for them. So I felt a lot of pressure that I have to start making money. Is just enough to maybe pay for practices because it was too expensive, maybe to make a quarters of the futures and you get some money to pay the tickets back, and so what's not easy? I was not believing in much. I was just trying to improve, just trying to win as many matches as possible.

00:10:23
Speaker 6: You had a mixed bag of results initially, some big wins sprinkled in with a propensity in your own words to quote go crazy at any moment. There was the occasional broken racket friction with opponents with umpires. For you, frustration and anger were often as great an opponent as the gent facing you on the other side of the neck. What did you come to understand about why the demons came out when you played tennis, I.

00:10:48
Speaker 3: Still don't know. I was a bit worse than juniors as we're all kid, so it's a very different world. I understood it when I came to futures that it's really important professional sport, and this is I try to not get in a fight with an opponent because it's just another tennis player that just tries to win a match. And when you come to futures, there will be some players of thirty years old and they're going to be like, Okay, who is this eighteen year old kid starting to say come on in my face about the demons. It still happens, definitely does, but I understood that I have to work on it if I want to win more tennis matches. And as I said, I'm all about winning. So I started working with a mental coach like three years ago. Since then my results went up. For sure, It's not the only reason, but part of the job.

00:11:30
Speaker 5: I would say, what did you learn from the sports psychologists you started to work with about calming your anger but still keeping the intensity which you need.

00:11:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the most important because I would have some matches in juniors where this time, of course, I didn't have a sports plackologist or anybody. So my coach or my parents would tell me, Daniel, it doesn't help you to win matches. You need to be calm, and then I'm going to go out on the court. I would be calm, but then you don't have this excitement to win matches. It's like there is nothing inside of you. So it's very important to would have this balance where you still have this fire to win, this desire, but that doesn't develop into smashing records.

00:12:08
Speaker 6: Whatever you were doing, it began to work, picking up title Sydney Winston, Salem, Tokyo. Yeah, you still remained outside the conversation about players poised to be tennis's next big thing. On the men's side. In twenty eighteen, there was a wave of young talents patching of Curry, your Shapout, all of whom were getting all the buzz back then. Now we know, Daniel, you are extraordinarily competitive. How much did you think about that, about them and the buzz they were getting. Well, you're constantly measuring yourself against your peers.

00:12:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely feel like for many reasons. First of all, I was not that exposed in juniors. Then for sure, for my gaming style, which can be I guess suppose for some people as boring plumbing the rankings. I was already bussing some of these guys, but they were much more high, and of course sometimes it would be a little bit disappointing. You know, make a great shot on a tournament and I would post to talk about it, and I was like, damn, I'm trying my best. But the most important is the result in the rankings at the end of the day, at least for me. As soon as you climb the rankings even higher, you make even better results. That's when the attention comes in. And I feel like it even helps you to not get it too early, because then you're gonna have a lot of pressure on your shoulders, everybody talking about you, saying you're the next number one, is going to be the next one to get Roger out from tennis. I never had this, and when I got this, I was already prepared for it. I was ready. I knew how to deal with it. So I feel like that was a good puss.

00:13:32
Speaker 5: To get your gain kept developing. Tootanil below the radar. Physically, you are an extremely tall man six foot six, long arms, but You've got a rare mix of big man power and small man mobility and shot making. You literally invent new angles for the flat ball. You drop shot from everywhere. Hatching Off once described you as an octopus. Do you take that as a compliment.

00:13:55
Speaker 3: I take it as a compliment as a tennis player, because that means it's tough to play against you. Like a lot of hands all over the court. You say, all the balls, you make them come back. My first tennis coach, a Russian woman, kris Koviterina, is a name her golden rule of tennis, which she asked before every practice when you were six years old. So you come on first practice, you think, again, I'm going to hit one thousand balls. I'm going to be so good. She asks, what's the golden rule of tennis? How can you win a match? And the golden rule for her was to past one more time the ball than your opponent.

00:14:25
Speaker 5: As easy as that, you know, simple.

00:14:27
Speaker 3: Even if he makes with her, it means that he passed the ball one more time than you. That's what I always kept in my mind. And I have been working really seriously with my physical coach for seven years already, especially the last three years We put a lot of effort to make me a better tennis player physically, the small details they worked really well.

00:14:44
Speaker 6: I'm fascinated by your mental approach because you are also known as a master of strategy, of point winning, a shape shift, with the ability to change course almost mid game, sometimes midpoint. One minute you're serving rockets dominating the net, the next you grind from the baseline. Take us inside your mind. How does it happen? Do you have a plan, A, plan B, plan C.

00:15:06
Speaker 3: We developed the stretches with my coach. First of all, before the match on the tennis tour, unless it's a really all a young guy coming with a wild card, everybody knows each other, so we all know what are the weaknesses and what are the strong parts of your game. So just before the match you try to refresh your mind with it. Okay, him, I'm going to play more on the back end. I'm going to try to mix it up. And then during the match, it's every match is different, every day is different. You try to adapt. All the best tennis players can do it, just maybe we don't talk much about it. That's what actually definitely novel did gainst me in Australia, I didn't yet realize what but if I play him next time, I'm going to try to prepare. And that's how it works. Yeah, there were a lot of matches where you have to adapt during the match, and that's a tough thing because it's so tough to tell yourself, Okay, I was returning from the back of the court. Now I'm gonna step and just return from the baseline. It's really tough.

00:15:57
Speaker 5: This grueling form of tennis that you practice comes from your original Russian coach. I love this, but it's essentially forcing your opponents into playing tennis and running an ultramarathon at the same time. What is the mindset required to sustain this over three or four hours.

00:16:14
Speaker 3: I do this in practices. So when I was really young, I need you to practice one hour was already a top job physically and mentally, and at one moment I understood that what you do on the practice courts is what comes in matches after. So you cannot practice one hour per day, twice a week and then go play a Grand Slam. I'm trying on practices to reproduce the match situations where you're gonna maybe run for two hours without missing the ball trying to bring points. Of course, we will work with my coach on how to reproduce it. It's not easy sometimes that when in the match, I know that I'm capable of it. I know that on practices I did it, so there is no reason I won't be able to do it in match, and that helped me a lot lately.

00:16:52
Speaker 6: Dostoyevsky once wrote in Notes from Underground, man is sometimes extraordinarily passionately in love with suffer your phrose who you defeat have often wondered postgame, if you're a machine, but what kind of told did these long, painfull games really take on you? Because they must hurt you also, yeah.

00:17:11
Speaker 3: Of course. I actually remember one match against Gamfi's and Rotter Dammard two years ago, and I remember his game plan. So he decided he's going to just give me easy balls and run. And so first three games we had like rally of fifty shots and I thought, okay, I'm gonna tramp. In ten minutes, I couldn't breathe anymore. It was so tough. I didn't know what to do. And then I looked at him and he was the saying, it always works those ways, and that's when it starts a physical and mental battle. Who is better this day physically and mentally? And I like when my opening suffers because you can see straight away even if he tries to hide it.

00:17:45
Speaker 5: Okay, we're gonna take a break. When we come back, Danil, we'll talk about his rise to number two in the world and the transformation that has powdered along the way. Danil, you're a singular athlete. You've walked a unique journey to glory, and now you have a signature shoe that reflects that, the AGLT twenty one Ultra. It integrates your interest and passions off the court, like your gaming, your digital influences, and also your tennis. You are heavily involved in the design of the shoe. How would you describe it?

00:18:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, we worked really close with LaCosta on developing it, on making it the best shoe possible. I feel amazing. You need to be honest. It's all about how fast you run on the court. It's all about green and matches.

00:18:32
Speaker 6: Renee Lacoste, the maverick who created the Lacosse brand, was an incredible character who embodied sporting, elegance and tenacity. Danil, do you feel in a way that you channel him.

00:18:43
Speaker 3: Hopefully it's not for me to decide, but I feel like I have a great connection with Lacoste family. I'm really proud of it.

00:18:49
Speaker 5: Okay, let's go win Miami. Twenty nineteen was your breakthrough season. Everything clicked. You beat Djokovic, the world number one at the time, in Monte Carlo, into the top ten for the first time, and then you hit the summer hard court swing, an incredible run of six straight finals. At the US Open. After your third round match against Feally Lopez, you became sort of the anti hero of the tournament for a little bit, causing an entire stadium of insane New Yorkers to scream at you. But you reveled in it, telling the booing crowd the energy you're giving me right now, guys, I think it will be enough for my next five matches. Can you describe how mentally you can feed off negative energy in a match.

00:19:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, to be honest, you saw in twenty nineteen. It is probably the turner I'm going to remember all my life, no matter which career I'm going to have, because it was special. You know. It was definitely the first time when twelve thousand people were booing me all of that. The thing is that I understood I made a mistake during the match as soon as it happened, so I knew that, Okay, I made a mistake, doesn't mean that I have to lose A match. Was a third round match was really important. I just once Cincinnati, I felt like I was playing great tennis. So I needed to turn this around and I wouldn't be able to win a match with all the crowd against me. And I went playing not again, that's my opponent, but against the crowd. I said, Okay, there is twelve thousand people against me. I need to win against that.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: How do I do it?

00:20:07
Speaker 3: I need to take it as a challenge. I took it as a challenge. After what happened, we all saw it. And the most important thing is by being myself and not hiding anything or trying to pretend someone I'm not. At then of the tournament, everybody started saying, Okay, maybe he's not that bad guy, and I really liked it. It was a nice moment because I managed to turn people on my side without faking it.

00:20:29
Speaker 6: That authenticity and tenacity ultimately one over New York in a way I've never seen before. It was so human and it's been onwards and upwards since this winter. Next level and you full La cost silhouette, beating the top three in the world, undefeated at the ATP Finals and then swaggering into the Australian Open into the final last month. Now a genuine front runner, dropping just two sets in a scorching run until you met that buzz saw Djokovic. You've now lost two Grand Slam finals one and epic grew five hour heavyweight battle of wills won a more straightforward, straight set loss. How long does the frustration last? And what do you tell yourself to renew your motivation after a Grand Slam final loss.

00:21:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not easy. I think both of them were tough because in one of them I definitely could have won the match the US Open one, but we can talk about maybe small points and I'll say, okay, maybe I would have won this point, and maybe I would have won the match. In Australian Open, we definitely cannot say this because there needs to be a lot of points to change. But both of these matches is huge experience and I always said in my career, experience is the Key. I always try to learn on my mistakes. That's how I won't have regrets at the end of my career. You know, I've done all I can. If it's sent Grand Slams, it's perfect. I'm really happy. If it's twenty one and Rogers still have twenty well, it's amazing. If it's zero, well at least, I just need to have no regrets with myself. I just need to do everything I can. From my point of view, That's what I try to do. After Rob's defeat, I just tried to learn from it. So if I have one more straight Open final to play against him, I'm going to try to be very different, to prepare differently, to play differently.

00:22:10
Speaker 5: So what an amazing year has been already the Australian Open Final, you lead Russia to the ATP Cup, you just win in Marseille, and now we're taping this a day after the rankings announced you is the number two in the world, the first time anyone besides the Big three or Andy Murray has been that high since two thousand and five. Can you describe how you feel in this moment. Is there satisfaction or does it just spur you on a deeper desire to climb that one last place that remains.

00:22:35
Speaker 3: Definitely boss at the same time because huge achievement. First of all, even semi is over, Grand Slam is not enough anymore to climb up the rankings. I managed to do it by making some great results. I'm really happy about it. To pass this monsters Rafa Roger, yes he was not playing of course last year, but still Dominic who actually won a Grand Slam. All these people is just unbelievable. And of course I'm always looking forward. As soon as you get something you never had, you try not to stop, and you want to get more. Just want to see my limits.

00:23:05
Speaker 6: You've been a pro for six years now, Danielle, blazing your singular path to glory. You break through, You made a name for yourself as a maverick, young underdog, disruptor. How would you like to be seen now?

00:23:18
Speaker 3: To be honest, I never thought of how I would like to be seen. I just try to be myself. The higher you go, especially we can see it with a big three. You will have people who love you. You'll have people who admire you, who adore you, who can live without you, and you will have haters. It's just normal. I just want to be myself and I let people decide. Somebody likes me, somebody thinks I'm boring or my style is boring. Well, I cannot change just for the people. Especially if you have one million people following you, some of them won't like you. It's normal. So I'm just being myself and I let people decide what they think about.

00:23:54
Speaker 6: What would the Medvedev of today say to the Medvedev of twenty eighteen about the most important lesson that he needs to learn to get where you are?

00:24:01
Speaker 5: Now?

00:24:02
Speaker 3: That's a nice question because it's reflecting a little bit. I would say that, because for sure, Mead of twenty eighteen was doubting a lot of things. The only thing I would say is consider the hard work you are doing and it's going to pay off.

00:24:16
Speaker 6: Danil, I have to tell you, and I know I'm not alone in this. We find your approach to tennis, your approach to life inspiring. We wish you your family, your team, strength, health, success and courage.

00:24:30
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. I appreciate it and thanks for the interview. Guys.

00:24:37
Speaker 5: What an impressive guy. I really admire the strategic, pragmatic way he has attacked his life and career.

00:24:44
Speaker 6: I'll never forget the way he went over that New York crowd at the twenty nineteen US Open, and that which caused a New York Post to write, Medvedev is more New York than most New Yorkers, and it's true that Blue is authentic, tenacious, and incredibly human.

00:25:01
Speaker 5: We are so grateful to Daniel, his team and to the cost for their partnership. I've been wearing the AGLT twenty one Ultra all week on court, and while I've not been able to do his trick of simply lobbing my opponents to their doom, I swear it's added about three feet of kick to my second serve.

00:25:16
Speaker 6: Courage bonchance, Godspeed,