French Open Day 11 - Andrei Medvedev Interview: 20 years since reaching the Roland Garros Final
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2019
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s been 20 years since Andrei Medvedev, ranked No.100 in the world, beat Pete Sampras and Gustavo Kuerten to reach the final at Roland Garros. Matt spoke to him to find out his memories of that run.
Is it true that just a few weeks earlier he had told Andre Agassi that he wanted to quit tennis? How did it feel to then be across the net from Agassi in the French Open final? And what caused him to lose a two-set lead on that day?
In an in-depth interview, Medvedev also opens up about how his happy love life brought out his best tennis, and whether he has any regrets about his career.
Finally, he also gives his views on tennis today. What does he think of on-court coaching? Does he see similarities between himself and Alexander Zverev? What does he make of the Davis Cup changes? Who is he predicting to win this year’s French Open? And how many Grand Slams does he think Federer, Nadal and Djokovic still have left in them?
There will be daily editions of The Tennis Podcast throughout Roland Garros, the Fever-Tree Championships and Wimbledon. It is produced in association with The Telegraph.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm John McEnore. I'm Bjorn Borg. |
| 0:02.3 | This is Martina Navratlova. I'm Matt Villander. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm Stan Roenka. I'm Lainey Njut. |
| 0:06.8 | I'm Andy Mori and you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:20.2 | While not a single ball has been hit today at the French Open, |
| 0:23.2 | because it is poured with rain. |
| 0:24.8 | And just before 5 o'clock local time, |
| 0:27.0 | the organizers decided to send everybody home for the day, |
| 0:30.3 | including Catherine Whittaker, who we've given the night off to. |
| 0:33.4 | And it means that all of the remaining quarterfinals will be pushed to Thursday. |
| 0:37.6 | You have a contest semi against marketer Von Drusheva. |
| 0:40.4 | We'll be played like all of the other men's and women's semis now on Friday. |
| 0:44.7 | So pushed back 24 hours. |
| 0:46.4 | Real shame, real shame for all those ticket holders that have just had a total wash out today. |
| 0:51.2 | So what are we going to talk about on the tennis podcast today? |
| 0:56.0 | Luckily, we have a plan. |
| 0:58.1 | And it involves Matt Roberts, who left us on Monday from Paris, |
| 1:03.3 | but not before doing an absolutely fascinating interview. |
| 1:06.7 | With a man that I've been trying to speak to for a couple of months, |
| 1:09.8 | it's Andre Medvedev. |
| 1:11.2 | He was known as one of the most entertaining and interesting men in the interview room 25 years ago |
| 1:17.5 | when he was on the tour. He'd go off on tangents. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Law, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of David Law and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.