Daniil Medvedev was quick to credit his opponent, Thiago Seyboth Wild, after losing in the first round at Roland Garros.
“Tough match. I don't know. I'm not going to look at it back on TV but my feeling was that he played well. I don't think I played that bad, but he played well,” Medvedev said. “The thing is that it's always the same. If he continues to play that way, my opinion, end of the year, he's Top 30. But last time I said something like this about someone, he didn't manage to do it. But great for him to play like this today.
“I honestly hope he's going to play like this later on, because if not, I'm going to be disappointed. I'm going to be like, ‘Why today? Why not in two days?’”
Medvedev appeared to take control when he won the third set 6-2 to earn a two-sets-to-one advantage. But Seyboth Wild controlled many of the baseline exchanges, hitting 69 winners to triumph after five sets across four hours and 15 minutes.
“I think I was fighting well. Physically I was not feeling that bad. I mean, I'm a little bit tired now, but also when you lose your body goes down faster. If I would win I would not feel that tired,” Medvedev said. “Mentally I was fighting. I was fighting. The last game, brought it back to 30-All, guy makes two winners, okay, whatever. Hopefully [I] can make it next time.
“For sure I'm really disappointed. I'm going to be [for] one week thinking about this match, but for the moment I don't see anything wrong I did. I mean, double faults, the wind was crazy today, so it was not easy… I don't see anything I could really do better. That's good. That's when you can bounce back faster in the next tournaments.”
[BREAK POINT]
The second seed enjoyed a breakthrough clay-court season. Just more than a week ago, he earned his first title on the surface when he triumphed at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome. However, he is still happy to depart the surface.
“It didn't change one time that every time it finishes I'm happy. So I'm happy. I'm happy again. Doesn't matter, one time quarters, one time fourth round, a lot of times first round,” Medvedev said. “Today I had because [of the] wind, dry court, I had a mouthful of clay since probably [the] third game of the match, and I don't like it. I don't know if people like to eat clay, to have clay in their bags, in their shoes, the socks, white socks, you can throw them to garbage after clay season. Maybe some people like it. I don't.
“I am happy to have it finished. I'm going to have to have a good time off. Have to find positives. A lot of relaxing [in the] next days. Happy to go to the next challenges even if, for sure, I wanted to stay longer in Paris, even if it's clay.”
Medvedev will move forward with confidence knowing that despite his early loss in Paris, he found his footing on clay.
“Before sometimes I was feeling, ‘Wow, I really cannot do anything.’ Today I felt like I [was] doing what I had to do, and he played well, so let's continue. And, well, the match was over and I didn't manage to win it,” Medvedev said. “But definitely amazing. Rome is unbelievable. I never thought I'm going to win a tournament on clay. Not talking about a Masters. So have to think more about this right now than Roland Garros, unfortunately.
“Next year I'm going to be maybe even more motivated to try to repeat the success of this year.”