"I'm hard to beat on hard courts" says Daniil Medvedev ahead of Toronto

The first time Daniil Medvedev had a very deep run at the Grand Slam came in 2019 when the Russian reached the final of the US Open. The Russian came very close to winning that match but in the end, he could not win the decider vs Nadal. Ahead of the National Bank Open in Toronto Medvedev jokingly named the final as his expectation:

“I am the top seed so anything except the final will not be a good result. I want to play good tennis. I know when I play good tennis on hard courts, I am hard to beat."

Medvedev is coming off a rough stretch of results that included disappointing showings on the grass season and the Olympics. That increased his desire to win which is always present anyway:

“I am keen to win. I know I am capable of beating a lot of guys on hard and I know I can win big tournaments. At the same time, everybody plays well, everybody can beat everybody. It is unpredictable.”

Montreal has great memories of Canada reaching his first Masters final in 2019 at the then called Rogers Cup. Despite losing against Nadal in the final Medvedev gained confidence which allowed him to achieve great things later in the year. On that he said:

“It was a special tournament. It was my first Masters 1000 final. I came here from Washington and I was pretty exhausted already. I didn’t know what to expect, I just wanted to play good tennis. It was the best result of my career at the time. It was a special feeling. I like playing in Canada.”