Medvedev Reveals Drive Comes From His Hate Of Losing More Than Love Of Winning
ATP
Daniil Medvedev never played textbook tennis but his hate for losing fuelled him for many years to the number one rank in the world.
Medvedev was never touted as a huge tennis talent because his way of playing is quite unique. The Russian never gave up on it and eventually built himself up to become a player worthy of a number-one rank in the world. Hating to lose was a bit motivator for Medvedev as he explained after his quarterfinal win in Miami, which he thinks it's a very good thing because it's visible today too.
You never know what's more important, talent or hard work. Actually both are. Starting from when I was really young, no matter which game I play, I hate to lose. So I actually hate to lose more than I like to win, and you can kind of see this on the court. I think that's a good thing.
You don't get to this spot in tennis unless you have some sort of talent and Medvedev has which is still visible in the unique way he's able to hit some incredible winners. The Russian credits most of his success to working on it which he feels is most important.
But if you don't work [at] it, that can become a bad thing, because that's when you can sometimes maybe stop practising hard, because that's going to release some pressure off you. If you don't practise hard, you say, 'Yeah, well, I lost the match because I didn't practise well enough.' That's a little bit weak.
Like many of his colleagues, Medvedev opted to use a mental coach this year after having a rather down year in 2022. The Russian further emphasized it's something that he wants to keep doing because it's been working out well.
That's something I want to improve. For example, talking about Indian Wells, I had my tantrums, which it's not good. It can throw you out from the concentration, and it's not a good look anyway, but I managed to still win matches and still be concentrated during those matches.
Medvedev will play Karen Khachanov for a place in the Miami Open final and he pointed out the difficulty of the matchup. Playing someone you know very well has it's flaws and benefits.
I think maybe just a little bit you have to kind of force yourself even more to be focused, and when I say this, it's just because they know your game so well and you know theirs so well. I'm almost sure we know how the match is going to go tomorrow, and it's a question of who's going to make the best shot out of [the shots] we're going to play."
