Daniil Medvedev offers mock thanks to Indian Wells court after ‘toxic relationship’

ATP Tour
Daniil Medvedev in action

The main stadium court at Indian Wells gave Daniil Medvedev plenty of grief throughout the fortnight in the desert, but he could see the funny side after his championship match loss to Carlos Alcaraz.

Medvedev had plenty of gripes about the new court surface at Indian Wells, which appeared to be extra gritty and played noticeably slower.

He blamed the surface for a rolled ankle and also managed to cut his hand open, but Medvedev was seemingly happy to say goodbye to the court.

“I had a pretty toxic relationship here with the courts, a love-hate relationship,” Medvedev said with a grin.

“So I’d like to thank the court!

“I only played on this court. I gave it a hard time so it gave me a hard time also. Rolled the ankle, the thumb… but it gave me the chance to finish the tournament. Thanks a lot to this court, I’ll definitely be back.

“I really love this tournament, I’ll be happy to come back many more years to come, and hopefully I can start to love this court and Indian Wells together.

“Sorry I didn’t make this final entertaining. I tried, I don’t like to lose, but today was unfortunately pretty easy. I hope you still enjoyed it.”

Medvedev says that despite his 19-match winning streak being snapped by Alcaraz, he takes a lot of confidence from the sequence.

The former world No 1 feels that his start to the 2023 season has been a big improvement from the 2022 campaign.

“A lot of positives, for sure. I think this one, I will be forever disappointed that I didn’t win the final, but I can laugh already and whatever, I’m going to try to win the next one or win this one next year.

“Really disappointed that it [winning streak] ended, but a lot of confidence from this streak. Because last year, that’s what I was missing, these streaks. I was doing sometimes finals, semis in Cincinnati, kind of playing good but not playing well enough in the semis. I managed to win 19 matches in a row. I’m proud of it, and now it’s time to try to build a new streak. There is no other way in tennis.”

Medvedev has risen to fifth on the ATP Rankings but will not enjoy a top-four seeding in Miami despite the absence of world No 2 Novak Djokovic, with the pre-Indian Wells rankings used for the draw.

READ MORE: Carlos Alcaraz banishes Novak Djokovic ‘asterisk’ snipe as he reclaims No 1 ranking

Daniil Medvedev

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