World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev shared his thoughts on his mindset ahead of the start of the `Masters` tournament in Madrid.
– How do you feel on clay? You mentioned you had plenty of time to adapt to this surface this year.
– Good. After Monaco, unfortunately, I got poisoned, picked up some kind of virus. I didn`t train for four or five days, even though I wanted to start preparing immediately. But I`m genuinely playing well now, we`ll see how things go.
– Last year was your first time reaching the quarterfinals here, and you could have potentially won the title if not for the injury. How do you generally find it in Madrid? Do you feel this specific clay suits you better?
– I wouldn`t say it`s more comfortable, because my results at other clay tournaments have been better. Last year was truly frustrating because I had three good matches. Just unlucky. I ran for a drop shot, pulled my groin – that`s life. I hope I can physically go all the way this year.
– How do training sessions with Gilles help you find a new level? What has changed?
– It`s hard to give a precise answer. There are things you always do. The serve is the same – you go out and hit it to specific areas. It`s difficult to change much there. But there are new shots, and some we haven`t practiced for a long time. It`s a constant process of seeking improvement.
– And can patience be trained?
– Psychology can be. There are different techniques. Sometimes you can just try to breathe; it would help me in certain moments, but I don`t always have time to think about it. You build that up in training. It`s a silly example, of course, but today in practice I was losing to Khachanov 0/3, I had to be patient, but I came back and finished the set normally. Patience is very important, but it`s fundamentally a mental aspect.
Marcus Prine