"This can happen to everyone, this even happen to Novak when he was younger": Daniil Medvedev open on Carlos Alcaraz' loss of confidence

Daniil Medvedev commented that Carlos Alcaraz is losing confidence in himself after his defeat against Alexander Zverev at the 2023 ATP Finals.

Alcaraz, the world No. 2, experienced a bitter debut, marking his third consecutive loss for the first time in his ATP Tour career after setbacks at the Shanghai Open and Paris Masters.

This time, the young Spanish player couldn't overcome Alexander Zverev, who continued his impressive form, defeating Alcaraz 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. The third seed in the tournament, Medvedev, addressed Alcaraz's challenging period, noting that the two-time Grand Slam champion no longer possesses the same level of confidence he had since Wimbledon:

“If you would ask me two, three months ago, for sure. Tennis is very, very tricky sport. At this moment, for whatever reason, we feel that Carlos plays just a little bit slower. He doesn’t have the same confidence he had throughout the whole year,” said the 27-year-old.

“This can happen to everyone. This even happen to Novak when he was younger. The question is, how fast is he going to recover. Is it going to be this tournament or next year.

“When he lost the second set, they showed the speed of the strokes, groundstrokes. Sascha was like 10 kilometres higher than Carlos. This is very surprising. In general when I saw the match, in the beginning we felt that Carlos is not playing his best. Sascha also. So I’m not surprised at all.

“In the end it turned out to be a great fight and a great match. No surprises. Sascha can play well also, serve well. It’s going to be interesting to play him for the 18th time.”

Medvedev also discussed his physical condition after surpassing 80 matches in the 2023 season, solidifying his position as the Tour's leading player:

“The thing is why I also have this many matches is because I won some tournaments or played finals. I think in terms of tournaments, I don’t know which number I am out of eight, if we talk only how many tournaments I played, but I don’t think I will be in top four,” explained the Russian.

“I think Sascha played more. Probably Rublev played more. I have many matches because I won some tournaments. Also, it’s work that we do in practice. It’s always a question, ‘Do I rest three days and then I go to practice or do I rest seven days?’ It’s always this balance: rest, practice, work, gym, tournament,” he added.

“We try to make the best schedule as possible. With tennis it’s tough. We have a tough schedule in tennis. So far with my team it’s been working great, so I’m happy I managed to stay fit today,” Medvedev concluded.