Daniil Medvedev discusses Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal ‘haters’

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Daniil Medvedev has discussed the ‘haters’ who continue to criticise players at the pinnacle of their game and discussed Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in his example. The 27-year-old won the US Open in 2021 and following a successful start to the 2022 season earnt the world No.1 ranking.

The Russian has spent 16 weeks as the world’s top ranked player compared to the 209 weeks of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s 310 weeks. Current world No.1 Novak Djokovic recently broke the record and has so far spent a staggering 380 weeks at number one.

Medvedev has been on an impressive run since his Australian Open third round exit, winning the Rotterdam Open followed by tournament wins in Qatar and Dubai. He booked his place in the Indian Wells semi-final with a 6-3,7-5 win against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and afterwards remarked about the ‘haters’ who have criticised him despite his performances over the last 18 months.

The current world No.6 said: “This pressure of being No. 1, for sure a lot of haters. And that’s normal. Novak (Djokovic) has a lot of haters. Even Rafa (Nadal) and Roger (Federer) somehow have them. You’re, like, how is this possible? They shouldn’t have (smiling).

“And that taught me to even less care about this and focus more on myself, on my close people around me, because that’s only way you can stay sane and true to you, to kind of, as I said, to have no regrets. Just because someone said you should have put this backhand in the court, no, you know you did your best and maybe your coach is going to tell you if you should have done something better, and he’s the only person who can kind of tell you this.”

Medvedev has come under criticism for his behaviour at the prestigious Indian Wells tournament and has slammed the traditionally slow courts in the Californian desert. Following Medvedev’s third-round win over Ilya Ivashka, he fumed at the umpire and threatened to “pee slowly”.

“I’m gonna pee as slow as this court is,” fumed the Russian. “So you can take 25 minutes. The court is slow so I go slow, I take my time.” But the Russian has since rued what he said.

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“The attitude I had on the court with Ivashka was immature,” Medvedev said. The 27-year-old admitted that he is working on his on-court behaviour and maturity but says the pressure of being world No.1 last year ‘taught him’ about pitfalls of social media.

He added: “The pressure is not easy, because you know that everyone expects a lot from you. I think that taught me even more because for sure when I was 20 and just coming up, you love social media, you love reading all the comments about yourself, how people, Okay, he’s going to do good, or even, He’s a bad player, and when you’re young you sometimes answer to them, No, I’m going to do good, that.”

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