Medvedev: 'I Actually Hate To Lose More Than I Like To Win'

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. 

While Daniil Medvedev did not exactly deliver that coaching cliche in his Thursday press conference at the Miami Open presented by Itau, he did explain the importance of both factors in his success — and the forces that drive him to push himself in training.

Discussing his mental strength, Medvedev explained the focus he puts on that aspect of his game, stemming from his hatred of losing.

"You never know what's more important, talent or hard work. Actually both are," he said. "Starting from when I was really young, no matter which game I play, I hate to lose. So I actually hate to lose more than I like to win, and you can kind of see this on the court. I think that's a good thing.

"But if you don't work [at] it, that can become a bad thing, because that's when you can sometimes maybe stop practising hard, because that's going to release some pressure off you. If you don't practise hard, you say, 'Yeah, well, I lost the match because I didn't practise well enough.' That's a little bit weak."

The Miami fourth seed also credited his work with mental coaches, though he did not employ one last season during a down year by his standards. He is once again working with a mental coach this season.

"That's something I want to improve," he said. "For example, talking about Indian Wells, I had my tantrums, which it's not good. It can throw you out from the concentration, and it's not a good look anyway, but I managed to still win matches and still be concentrated during those matches."

Medvedev has been rock solid in both his game and his mentality this tournament, winning all six sets he's played in reaching the Miami semis for the first time. After a 6-3, 7-5 win against qualifier and home favourite Christopher Eubanks on Thursday, he will need to be even sharper when he takes on good friend and 14th seed Karen Khachanov in Friday's semis.

The opponents grew up together and rose through the junior and professional ranks at similar times. They will contest their fifth ATP Head2Head meeting in Miami, with Medvedev holding a 3-1 advantage.

"I think maybe just a little bit you have to kind of force yourself even more to be focused, and when I say this, it's just because they know your game so well and you know theirs so well," Medvedev said of the matchup. "I'm almost sure we know how the match is going to go tomorrow, and it's a question of who's going to make the best shot out of [the shots] we're going to play."

The semi-final will open Friday's play on the Miami stadium court at 1 p.m. local time.