By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 24, 2022
Daniil Medvedev says he’s a little bit disappointed with himself for the way he acted during his four-set victory over American Maxime Cressy on Day 8. The Russian was clearly frustrated and let his inability to break through against the disruptive American get the best of his temper.
After the match he told Barbara Schett that he wasn’t happy with himself.
“During the match I got a little bit crazy,” Medvedev said. “I think with myself. … I tried to talk something in the air, to get into his mind a little bit, like maybe he’s gonna start saying say ‘What the hell is Medvedev saying?’ and maybe, I don’t know, he’s going to miss some shots. … I’m not happy with what I said today, but the most important thing is that I managed to continue fighting.”
Medvedev was also heard saying “This is so boring,” at one point of the match, and he told reporters that he was miffed for several reasons, including the fact that he was denied a toilet break after the third set and also the fact that he hasn’t played on Rod Laver Arena in his last two matches. Medvedev said he could have used the extra space that the bigger show court would have afforded him against a player like Cressy.
So, yes, there’s a lot going on here.
“I was annoyed with the day, let's call it like this,” Medvedev clarified.
Medvedev elaborated further after the match.
“If we, like, look in details what I was saying, I was really trying not to say anything about Maxime himself,” he said. “I was talking about luck. He really did hit the lines on the second serves in the match, I was really annoyed by this. But again, really even what I was saying during the match, I was not talking about him. Was more talking about, yeah, luck. One time I screamed that it's luck is there when I hit the tape, and before he was hitting the lines on the breakpoints, I hit the tape and the ball doesn't go over, I'm like, ‘What's wrong?’
“I don't like trash talking. I sometimes can unfortunately roll into this, but I don't like it. I think I try almost never to do it, especially against other players, and again, today was borderline. I don't think I actually said anything bad about Maxime, but, yeah, borderline where I'm not really happy about it.”
Medvedev Impressed by Cressy: “He Took Me to a Big Fight”
The World No.2 told reporters, when asked, that he felt Cressy could be a potential top player on tour. He was told that the American believes that he can reach No.1 in the world and be a Top-10 player, and was asked if that was realistic.
“The way he played today, completely,” he said. “I mean, of course it's a bit tougher for him on the return than on serve. So, I mean, we know these guys, he's gonna have to win a lot of tiebreaks to get the titles and everything.
“But I was in great shape today. I was playing great. He took me to a big fight. So it means that he can take anybody to the same fight, I think.”