Daniil Medvedev ready to 'fight till the end' against Novak Djokovic after upset win over Carlos Alcaraz at US Open

After his thrilling victory over Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open semi final, Daniil Medvedev was in excellent spirits as he looked ahead to facing Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final.

Medvedev believed he played exceptionally well in all four sets on Arthur Ashe, especially in the third set, where he pushed himself to play at his limits.

He explained in the post-match press conference: "I managed to do it. All four sets I played great, but especially - you know, third set I played, let's call it like this, I said I need to play 11 out of 10, all the three sets I won I managed to do it. In the third set I would say I was maybe 9 1/2, maybe 10 out of 10, and as we saw it was not enough against Carlos."

Discussion then turned to Sunday's final, a rematch against Novak Djokovic, who defeated home favourite Ben Shelton in the semi-finals. Medvedev predicted that Djokovic would bring his best game. He highlighted the trend that Djokovic tends to elevate his performance each time they face each other, referencing their recent encounters.

He said: "Yeah, that's what I'm saying, against Novak, it's the same. He is always better than previous time he plays. For example, I beat him US Open final; he beat me in Bercy in a great match. Carlos beat him Wimbledon; he beat him in Cincinnati. Novak is going to be his best version on Sunday, and I have to be the best-ever version of myself if I want to try to beat him."

During the match, as the noise level in the stadium escalated, Medvedev appeared to be feeling the impact and sped up his serves seemingly in an attempt to mitigate the influence.

He explained: "I don't even know what I was doing in the end. For sure, you never want to serve during the noise, but also sometimes I'm not someone who likes to, if it's noisy, because either they want him to win or it's just a great moment, I don't like to bounce the ball like 15 times. Then it throws me off the rhythm. If I bounce it like three times and I feel like the noise is coming down, I'm like, 'okay, I'm going to serve it'. Maybe that was the case, maybe I was a little bit nervous, so that's why I went faster."

Medvedev's surprising agility, despite his height, was another topic brought up by the moderator, and the Russian admitted that he had even impressed himself.

He said: "It was great because there were some points I lost, but after the point I was, like, 'wow, I have caught some balls that were really tough'. I was like, 'okay, that's good'. That means that next point I can do the same. Maybe either he's going to miss, or I could make a better shot."

Continuing, Medvedev admitted he hit peak form against Alcaraz: "I was in the zone. So, when I'm in the zone, I'm a great defender. I run well, even there were some moments where I was, like, 'damn, I should have started to run faster', because sometimes you tend to look what your opponent is doing. But against Carlos it's dangerous because he plays so fast, drop shots so fast, so you don't have this time to look."

Attention then turned back to Sunday's final.

Entering his fourth Grand Slam final, Medvedev explained that he has no specific rituals and will maintain his usual practice routine. However, he stressed the importance of preparation beyond the physical.

He said: "It's just the mental preparation where you want to go to war, you know. You want to fight till the end, you want to win, and that's how you should be in the final of a Grand Slam."

Reflecting on his victory against Alcaraz, a player he hadn't previously won a set against, Medvedev recognised that it boosted his confidence.

Staying on the topic of Sunday, Medvedev underlined the expectation that Djokovic's performance would be near perfect and that he would have to match that level.

He said: "Novak, when he loses, he's never the same after. So, he's different. It's just a different mentality. That's why he has 23 Grand Slams, whatever, Masters 1000s, weeks at No. 1.

"So, I have to use it knowing that he's going to be 10 times better than he was that day. I have to be, if I want to still beat him, 10 times better than I was that day. That's what I'm going to try to do."

Medvedev admitted that the presence of glamorous celebrities in the crowd had been a bit distracting. NFL legend Tom Brady and NBA star Kevin Durant had been among the crowd.

He explained: "True, there were a lot of celebrities they were showing all the time. I was trying to stay focused, but I was like, 'who is there? Who is the next one?' I think I saw everybody who was there, and some of them, yeah, were pretty big stars. So, to see people I see on the TV and some of them I'm a fan of and some of them I see in the movie or something like this, it's great to see them enjoy such a great match."

Finally, Medvedev was presented with the quirky statistic that his performances against Djokovic have been better when the Serbian is ranked world No. 1 than otherwise.

He responded: "That's funny because as you say it, the statistic, now he's still not No. 1. But, well, if we want to joke about it, I'm going to think, you know what, next Monday he's No. 1, so it's like if I'm playing him as No. 1.

"Generally, I don't know why the statistic is like this. I don't think it has anything to do with what happens in the matches. As I say, Sunday, I really don't care if he's No. 1 or No. 2. It's Novak Djokovic and I want to try to win."

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