"I don't care if Federer and Nadal are not here. I want to win the tournament" says Daniil Medvedev

Daniil Medvedev came fairly close to winning the 2019 US Open against Rafael Nadal where he came back from 0-2 down to force a decider ultimately losing it. The Russian has been improving steadily since then and he looks like someone who could do it. It has been suggested that players are more motivated without Federer and Nadal not here and asked about it, Medvedev said:

“I don’t feel it. I think for me it’s actually more about that when they were a bit younger or even few years ago, we always saw them in semis. They were in the top four so they couldn’t meet each other before semis, and almost all the Grand Slams they were in semis. So they were taking all the spots, just because they are the greatest in the history of tennis. They are amazing tennis players."

Medvedev then explained that he was very happy about being in the semifinal. He said:

“I’m really happy that I managed to make it to three straight semifinals US Open where, well, can we say also that I took this one spot all the time? It’s a question of level, of tennis abilities and everything."

He further said:

“I don’t care if Roger or Rafa is here. I want to win the tournament. It’s going to be tougher if they were here, and of course it would be tougher if they would be 30 years old. But I just want to do my best, so I don’t care if they are here or not.”