Madrid (Spain) – Although he was unable to go far in his first tournament of the year on clay, falling in the round of 16 in Monte Carlo, Russian Daniil Medvedev believes he can do well at the Masters 1000 in Madrid, even though clay is his worst surface, with 51.8% success rate, against 66.7% on grass and 75.1% on synthetic.
“Honestly, I feel good. I feel this every year, more and more when I go to clay courts. I know my game is a little more limited than on a hard court in terms of what I can do. If I play a good match on a hard court, I know I will win 90% of the matches,” said Medvedev during Tuesday’s press conference.
“On clay that’s not the case, I would say every match is 50/50, but I know what I can do. I have to focus on my side, on what I want to do and that’s why I’m working on my confidence and I play better and better. I love the city, it’s great, so I’m happy to come back here”, added the Russian, who has just three wins in four appearances in the tournament.
He is eager to put this past behind him and further improve his clay-court game in the Spanish capital. “I’m enjoying clay more and more. I have good results, good victories and I feel like I can do great things on clay,” noted Medvedev.
“I want to try to win more tournaments like I did last year in Rome, but to try to do well in Rome and Roland Garros I need to play well here in Madrid”, added the Russian who last February hired Frenchman Gilles Simon to his technical team to try to improve your performance in clay tournaments.
Two months after the beginning of the partnership, he reflected on the work. “He tries to bring something to my game that I might have thought of, but that I can’t put on the court. He explains how I can do this, which is important because during the game you don’t have time to think too much. I think too much in training, so I don’t think too much during the match,” he commented.
Medvedev awaits the winner of the duel between Australian Christopher O’Connell and Italian Matteo Arnaldi in their opening match in the Spanish capital on Friday. The world number 4 leads the record against O’Connell 3-0, while maintaining a 2-0 lead against Arnaldi.
