Medvedev hopes change is good in Indian Wells

Fortunes can change in the blink of an eye on the ATP Tour. Daniil Medvedev witnessed that first-hand last season, when he dropped out of the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings only to catch fire and win three tournaments leading up to the 2023 BNP Paribas Open.

This year, the returning finalist has reached the Australian Open final and the Dubai semis in his two tour-level appearances.

“I had a lot of confidence last year. I do have some this year, maybe a bit less because last year I won three tournaments before this one," he said Wednesday in his pre-tournament press conference. 

Medvedev progressed to last year's final despite his distaste for the slow desert conditions. One year later, he enters with a rosier view of Tennis Paradise.

"I'm definitely not going to blame the court for anything that I do, which means play bad or good, or lose or win," he said. "I'm going to enjoy it here. I love it here. I’m going to enjoy my time here and try to prolong it as much as possible."

Medvedev's acceptance of the court conditions is just another small change, one of the many ever-shifting tides on the ATP Tour. Now a relative veteran at 28, he has learned to love that aspect of life as a professional tennis player — even if it can be challenging.

"It's not easy because when sometimes it's a bad moment and you change for a good one, you feel great," he explained. "But then when the good one changes for the bad, you hate it. It’s going to sound crazy, but it happens to me for different reasons. It can be body-wise, it can be sometimes tennis-wise.

"Like last year, when I dropped out of the Top 10, I came to Rotterdam and I was feeling bad. And I started in a way questioning myself, OK, maybe I lost something in my game and am I going to be able to find it back? We always put a lot of questions in our head. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

"That's what I learned to love about tennis, is that it's changing. For example, two weeks ago I was hurting a little, my body here and there. Now it changed and I feel well here in Indian Wells and I have more motivation and attention to what I can do on a tennis court… So yeah, I learned to enjoy the changes and even if I don't enjoy them, I try to think about better days ahead."

In the short term, what lies ahead for Medvedev is an opening Indian Wells matchup against Flavio Cobolli or Roberto Carballes Baena. If he is to change his 2023 result in the desert for the better, there is only one way to do it: by winning his first Indian Wells title and his seventh ATP Masters 1000 crown next Sunday.