Daniil Medvedev motivated ahead of event that is ‘even stronger than a Grand Slam’
Daniil Medvedev has asserted that the draw for the China Open in Beijing is “in a way even stronger than a Grand Slam” ahead of his appearance at the tournament.
The world No 3 also spoke about the prospect of facing Carlos Alcaraz in the final and declared that it is “a good goal to try to make this happen.”
The draw for the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing is packed with quality, with eight of the top 10 and 15 of the top 20 players in the ATP Rankings present. Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev are the other top 10 players who will feature.
The China Open is being held for the first time since 2019 and both of the top two seeds – Medvedev and Alcaraz – will be making their debuts.
Medvedev could take on world No 2 and top seed Alcaraz in a rematch of the pair’s 2023 US Open semi-final earlier this month. The 27-year-old prevailed in four sets, avenging the Spaniard’s resounding victories over him in Indian Wells and at Wimbledon earlier in the season.
Speaking to the media ahead of his maiden appearance in the Chinese capital, Medvedev discussed the strength of the field.
“It’s my first time in Beijing. The tournament is super strong. So if you win it, it’s great. It’s a great memory. It’s great for the confidence,” said the Russian during his pre-tournament press conference.
“There are still some important tournaments to come, so the better you play the end of the season, the better you play the beginning of the next one. The motivation is to try to do all this, to continue proving to yourself that you can win these big tournaments, big titles, against big opponents.
“I think if we face each other, we are both happy, we are both in the final. That’s a good goal, to try to make this happen. At the same time, as I said, so many good players. It’s tough. It’s like an ATP Masters 1000 here or a Grand Slam.
“In a way it’s even stronger than a Grand Slam, where you don’t have first rounds, where you maybe can get into the tournament, which sometimes can be the case in a Grand Slam. I think we’re going to see a lot of different results where the seeded players can lose and stuff like this because first rounds are never easy.
“The arena looks really nice. I practiced both yesterday and today. It looks very, very nice. I’m sure there is going to be a lot of people during the matches. Let’s see. I only heard good things. First time I’m going to experience it. On ATP level, I think I only played in Shanghai and I really like it. I think it’s going to be the same here.”
The 2021 US Open champion will face world No 13 Tommy Paul in a difficult opening round encounter in Beijing. He will then play either Alex De Minaur or Andy Murray in the second round.
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