"I liked being in the position where everyone wanted to beat you" - Medvedev on being number 1

Tuesday, 21 February 2023 at 07:00

Updated at Tuesday, 21 February 2023 at 00:23

byAlex Waite

Daniil Medvedev has explained how he enjoyed the competitiveness of holding on to the number one position in the ATP rankings.

After an impressive end to 2021 and consistency in the 2022 season, Medvedev reached number one in the rankings for the first time in his career.

The Russian player was eventually knocked off the top spot in September last year after 16 consecutive weeks at number one, but it was a period that the 27-year-old mostly enjoyed.

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"I heard from ex-tennis players who say when they look back it was tough to defend a number one position and if I look at my rankings, my results, I have to say it tough but I didn’t feel much, I felt really happy to be there, I had a lot of points and I liked being in the position where everyone wanted to beat you, so I don’t think it was a problem for me, but many people say it could be you know, so it’s about guessing and I don’t know what’s the truth.”

— Medvedev said to the ATP <a href="https://www.atptour.com/en/news/tennis-radio-podcast-2023" target="_blank">Tennis podcast</a>

In recent months, Medvedev has slipped down the rankings to eighth place. The slide follows a dip in form to late in 2022 and early in 2023 as the Russian was eliminated from the fourth round of the US Open and the third round of the Australian Open.

But Medvedev said he is trying to avoid finding the exact moment where his form decided to fall as it can be unhelpful.

"It's hard to sort of pinpoint, where it started going. The thing is that I can only guess and I don't like to guess because when you guess you don't know where the truth is and the thing about tennis that you never know it could be easily the match against Rafa could be other things."

Medvedev is remaining positive and won his first event of the season this week after beating Jannik Sinner in the Rotterdam Open final yesterday.

The 27-year-old will now turn his attention to the upcoming Dubai Championships and Medvedev explained how his close communication with his family helps him to focus.

"I really like it, you know, it's for sure much tougher for my wife because as I say, I was in Australia, so I just talk to my daughter on the video and all this. And it's my wife doing all the job back home. So my job is not that tough and I really like it. And she's great. Pretty calm and it's a lot of good emotions and new things you learn, it's like, you see new life growing and that's a great feeling."

Daniil Medvedev