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Daniil Medvedev believes his run at the Nitto ATP Finals is proof that when he is at his best, he can beat anybody in the world. The Russian defeated World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the round robin stage and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals before scoring a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over World No. 3 Dominic Thiem in Sunday's final.
The win was the ninth career title for Medvedev and he ends the season with 10 consecutive wins, which include victories over seven top 10 players.
"It is amazing [to beat the Top 3 here]… In the group I beat Novak Djokovic, then Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and Dominic Thiem in the final, [the] best players in the world… [It] means a lot,” said Medvedev. “[It] shows what I'm capable of when I'm playing good, when I'm feeling good mentally, physically. I know what I'm capable of. I just need to produce it more and more and hopefully more matches like this.”
The final against Dominic Thiem was the toughest victory of my life: Daniil Medvedev
The Russian went on to assert that Dominic Thiem was playing at his best level in the final, and that he had to dig deep to hold him off.
"It was the toughest victory in my life because Dominic Thiem is a really tough player to play,” said Medvedev. “I think today he was at his best… That's what I felt during the match. He was really close to winning it [in the] second set. I managed to stay there. I felt in the third set that I was really tired physically, for sure, but I felt like he started to miss some balls, he started to run a little bit slower because he was tired.
Dominic Thiem is known to be one of the most physically imposing players on the tour, and Medvedev acknowledged that. The Russian believes that making the Austrian exhausted in the third set was a great achievement in itself, given that Thiem can usually play for hours without getting tired.
"To make Dominic Thiem tired in a three-set match, not a five-set, I think is a great achievement. All these small things, Dominic Thiem is playing as [of] today [as] one of the best players in the history [of the sport], not yet maybe by the titles and Grand Slams, but as I say, playing [with the form of] today.”
