'I would have risked Rafael Nadal beating me...', says ATP star

• Tennis News
• Rafael Nadal

This 2022 is not at all an easy year for the Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev. Thanks to Novak Djokovic's problems, the Russian has become number one, but his season has been very difficult and Daniil has not been able to achieve any level victory.

Exclusion from Wimbledon as a Russian athlete was a blow, but he now feels ready to start again. Medvedev spoke to the microphones of the ATP website before the Los Cabos tournament, a tournament in which he will try to return to success.

These are his statements: "Number one? Obviously, I will try to do what I can, but it also depends on the others, I am aware that to defend the title I would have to win all the remaining tournaments, so I think that at the end of the year Rafael Nadal will be number one in the world.

In the meantime, I will try to keep it for a long time, it has always done well in North America and I want to continue like this." The Russian tennis player reached in the last days the eleventh week as number one in the world, thus surpassing the records of famous compatriots such as Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who never spent 10 weeks at the top of the rankings.

The Russian tennis player spoke about his long absence and made the following statements. Medvedev had not played since the Mallorca tournament and said: "It's hard to say. It's always different, but definitely for me now it's important to win matches." In the second round (the Russian has a Bye) Medvedev will face Australian tennis player Rinky Hijikata.

About the next opponent, without mentioning him (the first round match was played by night), Medvedev clarified: "All rivals can be very difficult, so I can say that the more matches you win, the more confidence you gain, you start to feel your game better and that is what I will try to do in the Los Cabos tournament".

Cerundolo comments on Nadal

Francisco Cerundolo recalled walking out onto Center Court at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships ahead of his clash against Rafael Nadal in a recent interview. "Half an hour before the game I started to feel nervous.

And since I walked from the locker room to the court, passing through the internal corridors, I felt that Rafa was walking [behind me], that he was sighing in my ear. I felt that a lion was coming," Cerundolo said. Had he not done that and gotten overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation, the 23-year-old is certain he would have been decimated in straight sets.

"We were a few meters from the entrance, I psyched myself up and said: 'I'm going in to kill or I'm going to have a very bad time' Since I stepped on the grass, I thought: 'Look where I am,'" Cerundolo said. "I went into party mode and my nerves went away. If I [hadn't done] that, I would've lost 6-1, 6-1, 6-1."