By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) – Russian Daniil Medvedev said he revved himself up for Wimbledon by watching the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix in Barcelona after a disappointing early exit at the French Open.
The 27-year-old was beaten by Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild at Roland Garros and decided to switch off entirely before focusing on the grasscourt season.
“When you lose early, it’s good, I have some time off,” he told reporters on Friday after finishing off Frenchman Adrian Mannarino to reach round three for the fourth time.
“I can either say next day I’m going to practise already full and try to prepare the next tournament, or I take some days off. I lost Roland Garros Tuesday. I took a week off.
“We were thinking with my wife what should we do, go to holiday somewhere, enjoy the beach or something like this. She was like, Where is the next Formula 1 Grand Prix?
“It was in Barcelona. We were in Paris. We live in Monaco so we’re like, Yeah, that’s the best timing to try to be there. We were there. It was amazing experience.”
In the often insular world of tennis, Medvedev said seeing another sporting perspective had been useful.
“Mentally, I was fully recharged by seeing another sport from another perspective. Then I was like, okay, let’s go back to practise, try to prepare well Wimbledon.
“So far working good, so let’s see how it goes later on.”
Medvedev took a while to get up to speed in his first-round match against British wildcard Arthur Fery but was impressive in a 6-3 6-3 7-6(5) win over the dangerous Mannarino, completing the victory after bad light interrupted his charge on Thursday.
His previous best effort at Wimbledon was the last 16 in 2021 but he thinks he is finally feeling at home at the grasscourt Slam, even if he is not ready to move the furniture in yet.
“Getting there. Maybe at the door. Not inside, but at the door,” the third seed told reporters.
“It’s perfect. This match was much better than the first one. I felt that I was doing many, many things good.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
