This content was published 12 months ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

The media days for the ATP stars have started and many shared their thoughts on this coming edition of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia

With all seeds receiving a bye in the first round, the best ATP tennis players in the world will not make their debut at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia before later this week. This gave them the chance to meet the press and chat freely about their coming to Rome and the conditions of the Italian clay.

Mededev happy to play the villain

It feels like Daniil Medvedev is a polarizing personality when it comes to love from fans: some love him, some definitely don’t. People that have the chance to talk to him off the court know he is a very different person to the one throwing tantrums when things start slipping from his hands.

“I just try to be myself”, he explained to SuperTennis: “I know that I do mistakes. I know that sometimes I get maybe crazy on court, and I shouldn’t. Sometimes I show bad example and I shouldn’t. But sometimes I show a good example and that’s good. And so, if people think I’m the villain, that is their interpretation of me on the tennis courts, maybe they’re right, but I’m just trying to be myself.  And if I have friends that love me, that’s great.  I would be probably less happy if I don’t have any friends. So, I have my friends who know who I am in real life and that I can be chill and easygoing.  Not like on the court, sometimes”.

He is also feeling more and more at peace with the red clay, in spite of still not being a fan of its bad bounces: “the more time passes during the clay season, the more I feel good on it, even if sometimes I lose, I feel better and better. And it’s the same here. I feel really great on practice dealing great with bad bounces, so I aml ooking forward to the tournament!”

Ruud looking for a turning point

Casper Ruud has not had the best start to the clay season and following an early loss in Madrid, he hopes to turn things around on the much more suitable conditions that Rome offers him: “Last year was sort of the turning point of the clay season for me here in Rome.  I hope this year, of course, as well that I can have a good result, sort of get a good result in a big tournament this year.  That’s sort of not been happening so far.  Hopefully can turn around here in Rome.”

With the new 2-week format for both Madrid and Rome, Ruud had the chance to return home for a few days and enjoy Rome earlier than most: “After Madrid I went home for a couple days, but it was a little cold still in Norway, so it was better to come here early and prepare, feel the courts, feel the conditions and all these things.  I’ve been here for quite a bit. On Sunday I enjoyed, yeah, my time at the Marco Simona Golf Course, watched the Italian Open on the DP World Tour.  It was a very fun experience”.

Rublev and the doubles’ fairytale

The clay season of Andrey Rublev could have not started any better: the sixth seed here in Rome has won the Masters 1000 of Monte Carlo in singles and then lifted the trophy in Madrid pairing up with friend Karen Kachanov. The latter result, especially, has given a new prospect to his season.

“We’re obviously going to play the rest of the season together”, he told with a big smile: “I mean, the rest of the tournaments where we’re going to be together because maybe there’s some tournaments that he will play and I’m not going to play, but when we’re going to be together, we’re going to play. And then if somehow we will do something good somewhere else and somehow… then perfect. If not, nothing happened because we won that title that we had never had before in our lives. So for us this season feels already like a fairytale”.