'It’s actually very tricky': Daniil Medvedev opens up difficulties faced by players for doping tests

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has opened up about a tricky situation players had to deal with regarding dope tests. The 29-year-old suffered a shocking defeat in the first round of the French Open to Britain’s Cameron Norrie in a five-set thriller with a score of 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, 7-5.

Medvedev spoke to the media after the match, highlighting the difficulty players face regarding doping tests. The one-time Grand Slam winner stated that it is because of such issues that he ended up missing two drug tests in the past as well.

“I think it depends, because you choose the time when they come,” he said. “The rule is that if they decide to come, let’s say here in the press room, they have the right to do it,” Medvedev revealed. If they find you in the restaurant somewhere at 10:00 in the evening, this never happened to me, but they have the right to do the doping test if they know it’s you. So it’s tricky if you lie to them and tell them it’s not you, maybe — but anyway, that’s way too far of a discussion. This never happens. For me, it’s the same. I usually like it’s tough to know the timing in the evening, do you go dinner, not, so usually we put in the morning. I had two missed tests, because it’s actually very tricky. People think, oh, how can he miss it? Well, try traveling 25 countries a year. Try not to forget one date that you’re not in Monaco but in Paris already and change it. So, yeah, it’s not easy, but it is what it is.”

Medvedev also spoke about his performance on the day when he admitted that he was not ‘good enough’. He also went on to praise his opponent, Norrie. “That I didn’t manage to serve it out. I mean, kind of close match,” he said. “Great fight. Disappointed to lose. He played well. I didn’t play good enough. So that’s why I lost. I probably think it’s the same. I lost probably three times here first round in five sets. It’s always the same story. Couple of days or maybe one week, two weeks before the next tournament, I’m going to be feeling not good, I’m going to change the surface, so in your game you’re not going to feel not good, maybe next tournament is not going to be easy. Then you wait, work hard, and wait for the moment where it goes up again. So I don’t think necessarily changed too much. Yeah, disappointed to lose, but have 10 more tournaments this year or maybe 12, I don’t know. I need to try to play them well.”