At the Laver Cup, Daniil Medvedev acknowledged that it can be an odd experience to support some of his biggest competitors as teammates.
This weekend is the seventh Laver Cup, and Team Europe and Medvedev are aiming to win it back after losing the first two years in 2022 and 2023. The tournament is being held in Berlin.
Medvedev will be competing in the team event again for the first time since Team Europe last won the championship in 2021—that was his fourth consecutive victory in the competition at the time.
Carlos Alcaraz, whom he called his toughest opponent earlier this week, Alexander Zverev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas—players with whom he is known to have had a tense relationship in the past—are among those joining the Russian on Team Europe this year.
Speaking ahead of play in the German capital, the former world No. 1 acknowledged that supporting teammates who are typically his biggest rivals was a strange feeling.
He talked about it and said: “I think it’s the same – when we are there, we want to win. You know some of the opponents, maybe when you see them in your part of the draw, you want them to lose sometimes so you’re going to have an easier draw or something. Here that’s not the case. You want everyone on your team to win and it’s a pretty strange feeling in a way, but for sure Team World got the last two wins, so we’re going to bring this one back to Europe.”
Daniil Medvedev
“You know some of the opponents, maybe when you see them in your part of the draw, you want them to lose so you’re gong to have an easier draw. Here that’s not the case. You want everyone on your team to win and that’s a strange feeling in a way.”
🎥: Laver Cup pic.twitter.com/fqj8kUGhxs
— TennisONE App (@TennisONEApp) September 20, 2024
Daniil Medvedev in 2024
LLLWWWWLLL Ranked world no.5, Medvedev played his last match on the 4th of September when he was defeated by world no.1 Jannik Sinner 6-2 1-6 6-1 6-4 in the quarter of the U.S. Open (draw).
This year the Russian owns a composed 39-14 record. Daniil Medvedev’s most significant result of this season was reaching the final at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.
Daniil Medvedev will fight against the world no.219 Diego Schwartzman in the Round Robin on Sunday at 4:00 pm on CENTER COURT. Their head to head is 6-0 for Medvedev.
The Russian got to the final at the Australian Open and in Indian Wells (BNP Paribas Open).
Daniil won 21 titles in his career: 11 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts, 8 on indoor courts and 1 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Medvedev has scheduled to play next in Beijing (China Open). He will start from the main draw that will commence on the 26th of September.
