World No 3 Daniil Medvedev maintains that his motivation is at an all-time high as he prepares to begin his 11th season on the ATP Tour.
The 27-year-old Russian won his first Grand Slam title at the 2021 US Open and has spent a total of 16 weeks atop the global rankings on top of that he has been a consistent title winner.
He has won 20 ATP Tour crowns and more than $38 million in career prize money, but Medvedev insists that his desire for more is still a driving factor, even if maintaining those high levels of drive becomes more difficult as he gets older.
“Everyone is going to have a different motivation for different reasons,” said Medvedev in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the World Tennis League exhibition.
“And I’ll be honest, last two years, even last year, when I had an amazing run, I felt like I was changing. It’s normal.
“Getting older, you know, I’m not any more 23 and going for my first big title and I’m like, ‘OK, I want to do more’
“So at this stage of my life, at least right now, I hope this can last for a long time. I have just the biggest motivation ever to just continue finding my limits, to just go for more. Try to be even more professional, try to fight harder, be better on the court.
“Because at the end of the season, I was a little bit too much all over the place because I was mentally tired. So I’m going to try to do all of this better next year and hopefully I can become a better player.”
Daniil Medvedev has formed as top four alongside Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner that seem to have risen above the others in 2023.
He said that it would be dangerous to think that the same four players will have it their way in 2024.
“For sure if we take last year and many, many different tournaments, we did separate a little bit from the rest at one point of the season and especially at the end, regarding the points,” acknowledged Medvedev.
“But I do think that this also shows that every season can be different. Stefanos [Tsitsipas] made a final in Australian Open; for different reasons had a tougher end of the season, but he can come back there and pass me, Sinner or Carlos or Novak, anyone.
“So I would be still careful with something like this. I myself was out of top 10 last year, in the beginning of the season.
“The only thing we’re sure is Novak is always there. I could be out of 10, Novak is always there. So hopefully I can be part of this top four and whoever the other three guys and I’m going to try to do it.”
Medvedev is hopeful of mounting a challenge for all four Grand Slams and the Olympic Games which will see the best in the world return to Roland Garros after Wimbledon.
“Even if I proved it to myself this year, 100 per cent, that I can be a very good clay-court player, I feel like I’m struggling a little bit, and that was the case throughout all my career, to change surfaces,” Medvedev said in reflection of 2023.
“And this year we know it’s hard, clay, grass, clay, hard. So it’s going to be a challenge. Calendar is not easy, but it’s the same for everyone.”
