Daniil Medvedev says the growing Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz rivalry is “great” for tennis but noted he will do his best to prevent them from playing in the US Open final and winning the title. After delivering blockbuster clashes in this year’s Wimbledon and Cincinnati Masters finals, Djokovic and Alcaraz are widely tipped to also make the US Open final. Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, is the third-seeded player at this year’s last Grand Slam tournament of the season and he is also considered among the favorites for the US Open title. But the feeling is that many have either Djokovic or Alcaraz as the 2023 US Open winner. In his pre-tournament press conference, Medvedev was asked if that’s something he personally finds “irritating.”
Medvedev praises the Djokovic-Alcaraz rivalry
“No, I think honestly it’s great. I think it’s great for tennis that we have these two guys playing against each other right now. As I say, it’s a great story, but then the tournament starts and hopefully we can — when I say ‘we’, me personally or someone else — we’re going to try to beat them and stop them from playing each other. But again, doesn’t irritate me at all because I always said that sometimes we have this overrated, underrated, right, usually in social media. You go on Instagram and everyone after every match is like, He’s overrated, He’s underrated. That’s their favorite thing to say. In my opinion, tennis is one of sports where you almost can say this. Football, it’s 11 against 11. Even if the team wins, you can always say something about the players. Tennis is one against one. We have rankings, 52 weeks, unless someone was injured, that’s the ranking you have, done. Now they’re 1, 2 by the margin. I think they are maybe a thousand, 500 points ahead of me. I’m No 3 by the margin. There’s no one behind me, at least that close, if I remember it right. I think that’s normal we talk about them. I do think we still talk about me. I’m not feeling too bad, but I’m going to try. The goal is, after this US Open, that we talk about me, so I’m going to try to do it,” Medvedev said.