No Excuses from Medvedev on His Loss to Nadal: I Just Need to Be Better

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No Excuses from Medvedev on His Loss to Nadal: I Just Need to Be Better

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 26, 2022

After a difficult loss to Rafael Nadal in the Acapulco semifinals that saw Daniil Medvedev fail to convert any of his 11 break points, the soon to be World No.1 made no excuses for his defeat. He says, simply: “I just had to be better.”

Medvedev did say that he never really found his A-level tennis in Acapulco, and that made it impossible to get a leg up on a resurgent Nadal, who improved to 14-0 on the season with his second win over Medvedev in 2022.

“Unfortunately I don’t think I played really great today,” Medvedev said. “There were like some moments where there could be some good points, but generally my whole level of the match was not strong enough to compete with somebody like Rafa - too many mistakes. It’s tough, Rafa is in great shape right now, and if you want to win you need to be at your best. The score says it all.”

Medvedev, who will become the 27th World No.1 in ATP history on February 28, says there are positives to take from his performance in his Acapulco debut.

“The sensations were not here this week, but I’m happy that I managed to win three matches, without tiebreaks, without 7-5,” he said. “I don’t think I was playing great. I was fighting, I was trying to put some balls in the court, that’s important sometimes when you are not feeling your best, to win these matches. That’s great, and that’s what I can take positive from this week.”

But he added that there isn’t a lot that he can take out of Friday’s loss.

“If you are going to ask me what I need to change today - I need to change everything I did,” said Medvedev. “I just need to be better next week.”

Medvedev did put up a valiant effort in the second set, but Nadal saved four break points in the fourth game and another seven in an epic sixth game of the second set to steal away with an impressive win.

“When you have that many, that’s what I’m talking about. I just have to be more crucial, tough to say every break point was different, some of them Rafa played unbelievable, but I had to do better. If I’m talking about winning the match, I just had to play better.”

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