MY ACCOUNT
Daniil Medvedev is outgrowing his phobia of spiders while learning how to handle his tennis fears as he targets a long run at the French Open.
The popular Russian made pain-free progress past Serbian Laslo Djere on Thursday, winning 6-3 6-4 6-3 to set up a third-round clash with Miomir Kecmanovic.
He spoke afterwards about the difficulties of staying informed about off-court matters, particularly whether there could be twists to come surrounding Wimbledon’s ban of Russian and Belarusian players this year.
Medvedev is keen to keep his focus on what happens on court, and while tennis may stoke up emotions, such as when the world number two was cut up by his defeat to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, he is determined to develop mechanisms to deal with trauma.
“I think fear is one of the toughest emotions in people’s lives, because a lot of mistakes we do in life are because we are scared of something,” Medvedev said.
“That’s how I think. And yeah, I’m a little bit scared of spiders, but I need to say I was much more scared when I was 10 or 12.
“When you grow up you need to sometimes face your fears. I never saw a tarantula, so I think I’m going to be scared if I see one. I’m not scared any more of small spiders.
“Fear is actually what we can feel every day in tennis. You’re scared to lose. Sometimes you are scared what people are going to think about you.
“For example, I was number one in the world for two weeks, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not scared if people are going to say, ‘Well, yeah, it doesn’t matter, you were only two weeks’.
“But you can be scared of this. I think in every sport, especially the higher you get, the more you can have this situation.
“I try to work hard on not being scared of anything and just learning, even if I do mistakes, not being scared to repeat them but try not to repeat them.
“To be honest, I’m not scared of much right now in my life.”
