“I need to play better in Grand Slams”: Daniil Medvedev after Laver Cup defeats

Daniil Medvedev has extended his inconsistent form following losses at the Laver Cup. The former world No. 1 has lost prominence in recent weeks after early exits at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati, along with a quarter-final defeat at the US Open.

The current world No. 5 lost both of his singles matches at the Laver Cup, despite entering both matches as the favourite. On Saturday, he was defeated by Frances Tiafoe, and on Sunday, during the final day of competition, he once again fell to Tiafoe, with both losses coming in the 10-point super tie-break.

During the match against Shelton, he was involved in controversy after throwing his racket into the crowd, leading to complaints from Team World, who expected his disqualification. However, the umpire decided not to sanction the Russian: "I didn’t want to throw my racket the way I did. I mean... I wanted to throw it at one place, which is a bad gesture on my part,” he said. “I was lucky. I did not touch anyone. When you don’t touch anyone, you’re not disqualified. That’s all. I just think I shouldn’t have done that," he explained after the match.

“I feel like I have motivation in every tournament I play, but I could give you 10 different reasons or excuses why I lost each match. Before I didn’t like to play five sets, every time they ask me I always say to play best of three, but I know that maybe it will help me solve the problems my opponent proposes. I hope to continue playing better in the Grand Slam and play a little better in the rest of the tournaments".

"In tennis it is important to think that a new opportunity will always come, even if it is not always easy to believe in it. It also happens the other way around, you may have won a Grand Slam or an ATP 500, but the next week losing in the first round of a Masters 1000, at that time you already forgot your title because of that defeat.”

“It’s important to keep pushing, we play every week on this tour, or we’re all traveling, training and moving forward. The harder your mind gets, usually the more matches you lose, the more tournaments you lose in a row. We’ve seen this in some players after the Olympics, how hard it is to push non-stop, so a good mental advice would be this, try to avoid exhaustion and push every week".