Medvedev opens up his personality and his two-year-old daughter Alisa already showing she has some of his characteristics.
Daniil Medvedev says he already sees a couple of his characteristics in his daughter Alisa as the Russian tennis star also acknowledges he will probably never stop having tantrums since he believes such emotions and fire run deep in his family’s genetics.
For the past several years, Medvedev has been one of the best and most entertaining players on the Tour but also one of the most fiery players when something gets on his nerve. But Medvedev’s tantrums and outbursts are coming in different forms as the Russian can unload at umpires but also on himself.
Last month, Medvedev had two big outbursts toward umpires in Monte Carlo, during which he wanted some umpires fired from the job. In Madrid, Medvedev had another rant but this time way funnier as he was asked if the “Illuminati” were controlling when the roof gets closed.
Last year, Medvedev delivered one of his best and most hilarious outbursts when he argued that the hard courts in Indian Wells were so slow that it should be considered a clay tournament.
Now, Medvedev – whose daughter Alisa was born in 2022 October – says he sees the same determination and passion in his first child.
“There are some examples, like she’s going to try to do something. She’s still young, so try to open a bottle or something, which she cannot do. She’s going to try her best, didn’t manage to do it, she’ll start sometimes screaming at the bottle, or throwing the bottle, or being not happy with the bottle, let’s say she forgets about it for two minutes and she really tried. And then two minutes after she comes back to try again. And that’s me on the court,” Medvedev told rolandgarros.com.
“I try something, sometimes I start losing, I get crazy for five, 10 minutes, but I’m still in the match and I still will try to win it until the last point.”
Medvedev: Maybe it’s just genetics
Since the start of his career, 28-year-old Medvedev has been always very passionate on the court and never hiding how he feels in certain situations. In the last couple of seasons, there were several times when Medvedev would be apologetic after his outbursts and would admit that he probably should have reacted a bit differently.
After all these years, Medvedev has come to realization that his genetics may be the reason and that he can’t go against that.
“Some small details like this, where all my life I was talking to people trying to be better, and we would talk about my childhood and this and that, and a lot of people will try to find reasons why I could be very expressive and fired up on court, and now I’m looking and I’m like, ‘Maybe it’s just genetics’. That’s a good excuse, I guess. But I’m still working on myself to show my daughter a good example,” Medvedev explained.
Medvedev: I’m progressing but I’ll never stop having tantrums
As mentioned above, there have been times when Medvedev would admit he was wrong after some of his tantrumts. Now, Medvedev says he has been working on improving in that aspect but admits that he will be the calmest player out there. When making that clear, Medvedev also highlighted that keeping things in yourself doesn’t help in the long run.
“I think I’m making big progress. It’s more of a together with yourself thing. I’m going to have some tantrums, and stuff like this, that’s just who I am. I’m not going to be able to beat it, because if I beat it, it’s just as if I’m hiding it. And it’s not good hiding things But I feel like when I’m conscious of what I do, I’m much calmer, much more joyful, much more kind, either on court or not on court,” Medvedev said.
Meanwhile, Medvedev continued his clay season in Rome despite his participation being in jeopardy. After making the Monte Carlo round-of-16 in his first clay tournament of the year, Medvedev also competed at the Madrid Masters – where he reached the quarterfinal before an upper right leg injury forced him to retire to Jiri Lehecka after the opening set of their match.
Since Medvedev didn’t look good against Lehecka and Rome was starting in just a couple of days, the fear was that the Russian maybe would not be able to play at Foro Italico and defend his Rome title. But Medvedev managed to play in Rome as he started his campaign on Saturday with a 7-5 6-4 win over Jack Draper.
After beating Draper, Medvedev also defeated Hamad Medjedovic 7-6 (5) 2-6 7-5 to set up a Rome round-of-16 meeting versus Tommy Paul.