How Daniil Medvedev’s daughter changed his tennis career

• Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev never knew what true happiness
• It wasn’t until wife Darya Medvedev gave birth to their daughter
• His life changed in a big but beautiful way

Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev never knew what true happiness was until his wife Darya Medvedev gave birth to their daughter in October 2022.

His life changed in a big but beautiful way when Darya and the baby attend some of his matches.

So elated is Medvedev that he admits he can talk about the joy of fatherhood for hours on end.  He recalls the many times people told him that he would understand the beauty of parenthood when he became a father.

“I’m a really happy person in my life right now with only good emotion. The experience is amazing. That’s what many, many people told me: that I can only understand this when I’ll have a baby. And now, I can completely understand. So this is a lot of fun,” he told Tennis365.

Daniil Medvedev with his wife Daria. Photo/Sportsmanor

Medvedev lost in the Wimbledon semi-final to 20-year-old Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz. The Spaniard won over Medvedev, the current world No. 3 Russian third 6-3 6-3 6-3 on Friday.

This victory saw him advance to the Wimbledon finals where he will play against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

Before making it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, Medvedev said that he wasn’t feeling fantastic about his game.

After coming back from the brink of elimination in his quarterfinal match against Christopher Eubanks, Medvedev in a reflection of his Wimbledon run said he didn’t give his best.

Although he did not advance to the last round, his game improved a lot despite not feeling too well be before the start of the grand slam.

A part of it stems from the joy of being a father to a beautiful daughter and every thought of her made him push to his best from the second round.

The 28-year-old Russian considers Wimbledon semifinals a major achievement given his tennis struggles in the last couple of months.

He opened up about his inner struggles at the Miami Open where he managed to get past Jannik Sinner who is a formidable competitor.

Florida’s humid conditions caused him a lot of mental struggle which he battled as hard as he played.

He first met Darya while they were both youngsters competing in tennis matches together when they were just 14.

They even lived together in a house in Norway at some point. Daria finally quit the sport when she was 18 after sustaining numerous injuries, but they both proceeded to advance their individual careers.

Daniil Medvedev with his wife Daria. Photo/FirstSportz

Daniil contacted Daria over Instagram messaging in 2014, and the two eventually exchanged phone numbers after talking about tennis.

Darya didn’t give it much thought beyond being impressed by the player whose career she had once trained, but she did so.

It wasn’t until Daria went to Nice, France, to meet with a dressmaker that the two were formally reunited. Daria met Daniil, who was living in Antibes at the time, while she was traveling, and the rest is history.

On September 12, 2018, Daniil and Darya exchanged vows in a private ceremony and they have been together since then.