Daniil Medvedev motivated to face Novak Djokovic in Adelaide, calls the Serb "probably the best player in the world right now"
Daniil Medvedev could face off against 21-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic before the 2023 Australian Open in the semifinals of the Adelaide International 1, a prospect the Russian is excited about.
The duo have faced off against each other 12 times on the ATP tour, with the Serb winning eight of those encounters, including the last three. In Adelaide, both players are drawn in the same half and are heavy favorites to reach the last four.
In his pre-tournament presser, Medvedev pointed out that he had a great rivalry with Djokovic and was motivated to face him in South Australia. At the same time, the former World No. 1 was okay with meeting someone else in the semifinals as well, as it would mean they had beaten "probably the best player in the world" at the moment.
"I don't know. I like to play Novak because yeah, I feel like we have a lot of matches. We had some really great matches with a great level of tennis.
At the same time, what motivates me is to be in the semis, and if it's Novak there, it's great. If it's somebody else who beats him, I don't care much; that's also great. It means that somebody is in great shape, and managed to probably beat the best player in the world right now," said the Russian.
Though the Serb is only ranked No. 5 in the world right now, Medvedev considers him the best since he has won his last few tournaments -- the Tel Aviv Open, the Astana Open and the ATP Finals.
"Not talking about rankings, but he won the last maybe five tournaments he played in or four. Yeah, so I would be happy both ways. I just want to be in the semifinals to start, and yeah, don't care who I play," Daniil Medvedev added.
"It's always difficult" - Daniil Medvedev on the challenge of staying in the Top-10
Daniil Medvedev also touched on the difficulty of staying in the Top-10 in the rankings during the press conference, stating that the emergence of new players like Holger Rune and older players like Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem returning to action made it all the more difficult.
"I think it's always difficult, really, because it's always some new players that come in. Some old ones are maybe playing a little bit worse, but then they're coming back, like let's say Sascha was not playing for a lot of months, but he can come back any moment and he's going to be a contender.
"Even Dominic, he's in a tough moment, but he's a guy who won a Slam, so any moment in his career he can be back at one moment, and he can start just winning matches, winning tournaments," he said.